Coronavirus: Kadaga bans trips abroad for MPs, staff

HEALTH   CORONAVIRUS    PARLIAMENT

KAMPALA - The Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga, has directed that no Member of Parliament or staff is allowed to travel out of the country in a bid to keep coronavirus (COVID-19) at bay.

During plenary on Tuesday Kadaga said: "We are happy that Uganda has not registered any cases. With immediate effect, all travel outside Uganda is suspended."

The Speaker also explained her earlier comments concerning the American researcher who claimed to have developed a sanitizer that kills the COVID-19 instantly.

"There is no vaccine at the moment against the virus or its treatment. The present disinfectants are alcohol-based and only effective on bacteria and not against spots of viruses," the Speaker told the MPs.

"Prof. Safraz developed an effective advanced sanitizer that can kill the Covid-19 virus instantly. The tests were conducted in the US and Glasgow. Actually the trial in the USA is starting today," Kadaga added.

On Monday, Kadaga had told MPs that Prof. Safraz K. Niaz, a US-based researcher, had agreed to team up with a local company to produce a sanitizer that kills COVID-19 instantly.

"Prof. Sarfaraz, an advisor to the US Congress government, has teamed up with a Ugandan biochemist, Mathias Magoola, to produce the product at DEI Group, in Luzira, Kampala. It will be the first product that instantly kills the Coronavirus," Kadaga tweeted on Monday.

But yesterday she tweeted: "I've laid on table five technical books written by Prof Sarfraz -- who is being insulted. He was the brainchild behind 'Obama Care'. My interest is local capacity to produce our own drugs instead of endless importation. The local biochemist, Matthias Magoola, is not a quack."

In East Africa, whereas Kenya, Tanzania, and Rwanda have reported positive cases of COVID-19, Uganda has not reported any.