KIU, Western Campus - The Ministry of Health, in the latest of reinvigorated sensitization attempts, has emphasized the power of physical, or what we popularly call social distancing in a video it has released today, August 25.

In the video, which has animated characters with subtitles, the message calls upon Ugandans to maintain at least 2-arms length distance from other people.

It says that ordinarily, one person infects 2 to 3 people and the other infected people also infect others at the same rate, translating into a single infected person infecting 406 others in a single month.

However, when a person limits the number of people they come into contact with, the infection rate drops dramatically because the disease spreads more slowly.

Apparently, if every individual limits the number of people they come into contact with, the disease can spread from one to only 15 people in a month. The message ends with an appeal to everyone to protect themselves, their loved ones and their country.

This move comes after the focal person for COVID-19 at KIU Teaching Hospital, Dr Sam Kyalema,  advised the district and Ministry of Health authorities to re-sensitize the public about the dangers of ignoring the Standard Operating Procedures put in place by the Ministry.

“Re-sensitisation of the public at all levels should also be done immediately. People need to know that COVID-19 is real. In the beginning, continuous sensitization was being done but nowadays, this has been ignored,” Dr Kyalema told this website on August 10.

Picture credit: Medical Xpress