Uganda is dropping mandatory covid-19 testing for outbound passengers and arrivals, two cabinet ministers separately confirmed this yesterday.
The works minister Gen. Katumba Wamala told members of a parliamentary committee that individuals transiting through Entebbe International Airport will no longer be subjected to mandatory testing. ” The government has decided that there will be no more testing at the airport, it will be selective for instance if a traveller doesn’t have 72-hour covid test result and has symptoms then they will be picked to be tested , but testing for every passenger that is coming in is no longer happening.
The minister was accompanied by officials from the Uganda Civil Aviation Authority that appeared before a parliamentary committee to confirm this news. The end of mandatory testing of covid -19 will be a financial and time relief to travellers who have been paying anywhere between $42 to $60 for single PCR tests before catching an inbound or outbound flight.
The latest shift to the testing policy regime means that Uganda is joining a growing number of countries, including France, India and Denmark that have dropped the pre-arrival PCR test condition for fully vaccinated passengers. Since the government reopened the international borders, including Entebbe International Airport in October 2020, outbound passengers were required to undergo mandatory pre-departure PCR tests which increased the cost of travel. The announcement of the end of mandatory testing comes less than a month after President Museveni fully reopened Uganda’s economy. Full Story; Daily Monitor