Friday has been declared a public holiday and a 4th National Prayer Session for interdenominational prayers as the country battles a rise in Coronavirus infections.

A State House statement indicated that President Yoweri Museveni had used powers given to him under Section 2(2) of the Public Holidays Act to declare tomorrow a public holiday to enable the country hold prayers to seek for God’s intervention in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The prayers come amidst increasing infections with the country now recording 74,260 COVID-19 infections and 752 deaths since March last year. However, in the last one month, the number of infections have increased 17-fold whereas the number of deaths have also more than doubled.

The prayers will be held virtually at State House Entebbe at midday but the leaders of the various religious denominations will lead the prayers via Zoom.

The Born-Again Christians, Pentecostals and Evangelicals will base from Rubaga Miracle Centre Cathedral, the Seventh-Day Adventists will be based at Uganda Union Makerere, Catholics will based at St. Mary’s Rubaga Cathedral, the Orthodox will be at St, Nicholas Cathedral Namungoona, while the Protestants will be at All Saints Cathedral, Nakasero and the Muslims at Ghadafi National Mosque, Old Kampala.

Members of the public have been asked to attend prayers from their homes through radios, TVs and social media channels that will relay the prayers live.

On Sunday, President Museveni imposed a 42-day total lockdown and announced a series of measures to control the spread of the virus. Schools, churches were closed and inter-district travel banned, among others.

“The strategy is to prevent these infections so that we have few infected people if at all. The situation can be managed by minimising the number of infections and give urgent care for the severely ill,” Museveni said.

He also warned that the new wave was more dangerous.