The Democratic Party (DP) in opposition has called upon government to consider coming up with a special arrangement to have religious leaders vaccinated to ease the reopening of places of worship.
The call was made by the party Spokesperson, Okoler Opio Lo Amanu while addressing the media at the party headquarters in Kampala.
Okoler said that the foundation of the country is seated on the fear of God but unfortunately the government is only focusing on the economy forgetting the spiritual enrichment of the citizenry.
“For instance, the government has never thought of vaccinating the servants of God in the same manner, you are vaccinating teachers; let the Imams, Sheiks, Priests and other religious leaders be vaccinated in preparation of opening the Churches and Mosques. It is no doubt that COVID 19 is here to stay, we should learn how to live with it,” Okoler said.
The party Mouthpiece noted that reopening places of worship is urgently needed to save the society from the hopelessness and ungodliness that has been brought up the lockdown measures instituted.
In the same vein, Okoler noted that the party is concerned about the prolonged closure of schools depriving a number of children of education for close to two years.
“This is unfortunate, we advised the government to open schools but hitherto they have not animated the education system to normalcy, all the learners should be in school. The ongoing vaccination of teachers is a good thing, but, we cannot hinge the opening of schools on vaccination of teachers, after all, vaccination doesn’t mean prevention of transmission,” Okoler noted.
He argued that tough questions should be asked, “For instance when teachers are vaccinated, won’t the learners transmit the virus to the other family members at home who are not yet vaccinated? I think this reason is self-defeating, let the government open schools for our children to study”.
Okoler reiterated the party demand for a well-structured plan from the government to keep the COVID19 levels down.
“We should not forget that we are still with the pandemic, by now we should be having ambulances with oxygen cylinders, oxygen facilities must be installed in all general hospitals in the country. We should emphasize testing whoever enters the country through our borders including tourists, as such, we condemn the suspension of testing of tourists at the airport, we advise acquisition of advanced equipment that can deliver results in a few hours other than exposing the country to the pandemic,” Okoler added