Dr. Chris Baryomunsi, the Minister of HealthBy Prisca WanyenyaThe Minister of Health, Dr. Chris Baryomunsi has promised to issue technical guidance to State House regarding the continued demand for COVID-19 tests for all guests going to meet President Museveni at State House, saying there are no positive cases of COVID in Uganda to keep the practice in place.“As a new Minister of Health, I will give technical advice to the President and the State House, maybe there is no big necessity subject to COVID testing, but just a precaution, which is harmless, there is COVID tests, but the tests are harmless. But we shall advise the State House that from a public health standpoint, there is no strong justification to cut out COVID tests because we don’t have an outbreak or an epidemic of COVID, the positivity rates are very low, so we don’t have active transmission of that disease in the country,” Minister Baryomunsi said.His commitment followed a concern raised by Joel Ssenyonyi, Leader of Opposition during the 20th August 2026 plenary sitting, who sought clarification on the continued practice of conducting COVID-19 tests by State House ahead of the NRM Parliamentary caucus meetings, arguing that such tests could alarm the public and international community to think Uganda still has COVID-19 in place yet in May 2023, the World Health Organisation declared that COVID-19 is no longer an emergency disaster.“It happens, each time our colleagues from the NRM have a caucus meeting with the party chairman, they are required to do COVID tests. And of course, this information goes out there as well. Now, what confuses people is, wait a minute, I thought COVID is no longer an issue. And look, everybody does these things its own way, so, I am not meddling into the affairs of the NRM, I am just addressing a health core side. So, it becomes alarmist to the public and other countries that these Ugandan leaders, each time they’re meeting, they have to do COVID tests. So, that means COVID is still a serious challenge in Uganda,” said Ssenyonyi.The Leader of Opposition added that the continued need for COVID tests come at the time when some nations have imposed travel restrictions on Uganda regarding Ebola, with the United States and other nations having upped the restriction by putting Uganda at level four not enter U.S, to which Ssenyonyi argued that the COVID tests would justify these restrictions.He noted, “And in a way, we seem to justify the countries that impose travel restrictions on Uganda because I have seen the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and others, they are struggling with these countries and saying, look, Ebola is not a health crisis in Uganda, don’t impose those health travel restrictions on us. But as one government entity or ministry is fighting to try and clean that up, then there is this contradiction that COVID tests are going to be done mandatorily.”The Leader of Opposition asked, “What message are we sending to these countries, which we are telling, please, don’t restrict travel in Uganda. It is not as bad, but then we are doing this, it is confusing. I think it needs to be clarified. So, we seem to be sending an image that we still have a health challenge here. And now those people get to be vindicated to say, yeah, no wonder we are restricting travel in Uganda, there are these health concerns.”Baryomunsi informed Parliament that when Government declares an outbreak or an epidemic and that requires Ugandans to continue being conscious that is why it should not be a big problem, adding that although there is a requirement for COVID-19 test before meeting the President at State House, the positivity rates currently for COVID are 0.001% meaning that Uganda basically doesn’t have active transmission of COVID in the country.The Minister added that Government is negotiating with nations that imposed travel restrictions on Uganda following the outbreak of Ebola to lift the restrictions noting, “And I don’t think it sends a negative message at all. It has little or nothing to do with the travel advisories which countries have been announcing. We are engaging various countries, including the US, Canada on their travel advisories in relation to the Ebola outbreak. And like I have been saying, those travel restrictions, we are not backed by public health science, but we are engaging the various countries and I think soon we should be able to lift themThe post No Active Transmission: Baryomunsi to Advise State House to End Mandatory COVID Tests appeared first on Business Focus.