The Uganda Wildlife Authority, a national body charged with Uganda’s wildlife care taking, has effective today 6th June reopened the nation’s national parks for tourism. This comes as the president of Uganda earlier lifted on the lock down measures that saw public transport revived though under tight conditions and surveillance.
In a statement issued by the UWA, the body said that all the savannah national parks are open for tourism provided all standard operating procedures have been undertaken in the protected areas to avoid the spread of COVID-19.
“All tourism activities within the protected areas shall be undertaken in a manner that ensures all guidelines of the ministry of health and the directives of His Excellency the President are adhered to,” the statement read.
However, primate parks such as Mgahinga and Bwindi remain closed to the public until further notice. This could be possibly because primate tourism involves tourists coming up close and personal to the primates as compared to savannah park tourism.
As part of the standard operating procedures are concerned, there will be mandatory temperature screenings for all tourists at all entrance gates of the national parks. Hand sanitizing and social distancing will be strictly observed in vehicles and on boats in the parks.
More so, large groups exceeding 25 tourists shall not be permitted in the parks at the same time for the same activity. For the use of vehicles and boats in cars, government guidelines of carrying half the capacity in order to apply social distancing shall be followed. This will apply to concessionaire delivery vehicles too.
However, events such as destination weddings shall not be permitted while saloon car vehicles shall not be permitted to carry out game drive activities in the protected areas. Visitors to the parks will also be encouraged to carry their own hand sanitizers and face masks
On the centrally, regardless of the parks are being re-opened, the country’s borders, remain closed as one of the government measures to avoid importing COVID-19 cases. The country’s main airport, Entebbe International Airport also remains closed to passenger flights.
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