Home » Africa: Uganda’s imposition of $30 mandatory Covid test for air travellers may hamper aviation, tourism recovery

Africa: Uganda’s imposition of $30 mandatory Covid test for air travellers may hamper aviation, tourism recovery

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The imposition of a $30 mandatory Covid test for air travellers by Ugandan Authorities might hamper the recovery of the already devastated tourism sector and airline operators who have been the hardest hit by the pandemic.

According to theeastafrican.co.ke, passengers travelling to Uganda will now have to pay $30 for a mandatory Covid-19 test as the landlocked country tightens containment measures to curb a possible third wave.

Uganda’s authorities say a Notice to Airmen (Notam) communicating the details of the mandatory testing requirements to all airlines is to be immediately processed and issued.
This is a departure from the previous norm where Kampala only tested citizens arriving from high-risk countries.

READ: Africa: Uganda Tourism Targets CEOs to stimulate incentive travel in domestic corporate sector

The move will come as a blow to regional carriers including Kenya Airways, which has previously said the containment measures issued by some of the countries have a negative impact on demand.

“The measure is intended to curb further importation of the deadly variants of the coronavirus into the country. It is also to abet further spread of the disease and guard against the third wave,” said a statement from the Uganda Civil Aviation Authority.

The Ministry of Health in Uganda has set up the testing laboratories at the airport and trained laboratory technicians, data entrants and all the other port-health staff to manage the process.

“The turnaround time for the mandatory Covid-19 test results will be reduced from four hours to two hours and fifteen minutes. Five PCR test machines with a capacity to test 300 samples per hour are in place at Entebbe. The facility has the capacity to test 3,600 passengers in 12 hours and 7,200 passengers in 24 hours,” said the agency.

The passengers will also be required to present a negative PCR test done not more than 72 hours prior to travel.

The new directive comes as a blow to the airlines that are already struggling with the effects of Covid-19, which has seen carriers such as Kenya Airways cut their frequencies to Uganda.
KQ in July cut the number of flights to Uganda from 12 a week to nine citing low loads on the route as passengers kept off.

READ: Aviation: East African Airline Uganda Airlines set to commence maiden intercontinental flights to Dubai

Uganda is one of the key routes for Kenya Airways with the most frequencies within the region with low demand on the destination set to impact the carrier’s earnings.

Meanwhile, the government has taken over the implementation of the mandatory Covid-19 testing for all travellers entering the country through Entebbe International Airport.

The officials said the implementation could not start on Friday, October 22 as directed by President Museveni because of international aviation protocols.

“It is an aviation requirement that communication has to be made at least 48 hours before you start the implementation. This is also because it [mandatory testing] is not an emergency but more of response,” a source in government, who preferred to speak on condition of anonymity, told Daily Monitor yesterday.

“The implementation of mandatory testing for all incoming travellers is starting after midnight of today [Sunday]. We were previously testing travellers who are entering the country from category two-country [that are considered to be having high rates of Covid-19 transmission or having deadly variants,” the source added.

President Museveni on October 22 commissioned the government Covid-19 testing laboratories at Entebbe International Airport and asked the authorities to start testing with immediate effect.

Aim
The mandatory testing is aimed at curbing further importation of deadly variants of the coronavirus and prevent the spread of the disease as the country faces imminent threat of a third wave of the pandemic, according to the Health ministry.

But travellers from 11 high-risk countries, which include United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia and Kenya, are already being tested at the government facility at Entebbe International Airport, according to the officials who are coordinating the implementation of mandatory testing.

Testing of travellers from those 11 countries had been ongoing for several months.

Mr Andrew Nsawotebba, the Ministry of Health official, who is heading Covid-19 testing at the airport, said they have taken over testing from private labs.

”As soon as the President mentioned that testing by private laboratories should stop, we asked them to stop testing people at Penial Beach Hotel [in Entebbe] and we started testing people [from category two countries] at the government facility [within the airport] at $30 [down from $65 they were being charged in private labs],” he said.

He said travellers are being tested regardless of their country of origin, their vaccination status or the test results they present on arrival.

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