Uganda’s authoritarian president Yoweri Museveni on Saturday announced a 21-day lockdown on the Mubende and Kassanda districts in central Uganda to control an Ebola outbreak.
Museveni said there have been 58 confirmed cases and 19 fatalities since the outbreak began on September 20. The lockdown prevents travel to or from Mubende and Kassanda, although cargo shipments are still permitted to pass through the affected districts.
Entertainment venues and houses of worship were closed, and a nighttime curfew was imposed.
The police have been instructed to arrest anyone who refuses to comply with isolation orders. News reports suggested Museveni ordered the lockdown because there has been at least one case of an infected person slipping out of the outbreak zone to seek treatment in another part of Uganda.
The man in question died while being treated at a hospital in the capital of Kampala.
