Kampala – Government of Uganda has put travelers to the task of having a COVID-19 negative certificate taken within 120 hours before departure starting on the day the sample is collected for testing and NOT within 72 hours as has been the case.
Dr Henry Mwebesa the Director General Health Services at the Ministry of Health has this afternoon announced that all individuals intending to travel out of Uganda are required to pay for a COVID-19 test and certificates for travellers MUST indicate TRAVEL as the intended purpose of the test.
This notice has been issued against the background that some travellers have been going to Government testing centres claiming that they are contacts to previously confirmed cases hence tested for free, yet the actual purpose of the test was for “travel.”
“All tests for contacts’ and alerts’ will henceforth be labelled accordingly on their certificates. It is further important to note that ‘contacts’ and ‘alerts’ cannot be allowed to fly even if they are negative for COVID-19.”
Dr Mwebesa says that all intending travellers who would like to test at Government facilities are required to pay UGX 180,000 (One hundred and eighty thousand shillings only) at any Stanbic Bank and a copy of a valid payment slip to be presented at the accredited Government sample collection centre and later samples will be sent to the accredited laboratories for analysis and testing.
Results of the test will be given within 24 – 48 hours, he added.
However, individuals who wish to test at any of the accredited private laboratories have been accepted do so and their results will be validated.
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