About 50 MPs and their staff return to Uganda from the East African Legislative Games; a friendly sports event hosted for the parliamentarians by Tanzania, Covid-19 positive.

The Legislators tested positive twice, both in Arusha and the Malaba boarder on their way back home from the games as they suspected infection. With no S.O.Ps or masks at all in Tanzania due to the country’s reluctance toward the disease, about 50 Ugandan MPs and members were confirmed Covid 19 positive.

The ministry of health asks public to await confirmation of variant as there are a number of procedure to follow before they could confirm if the legislators contracted the new variant or the already existing ones in Uganda.

These East African legislative games drew nearly 1,500 participants from the East African community including; Uganda, Zanzibar, Kenya, Tanzania and Burundi with apologies from those unable to attend like Rwanda.

The legislators games ran from the 6th of December to 17th of December, 2021, with Zanzibar attending for their first tournament. The games included; netball, football, tag-of-war, and volley ball among others.

Tororo legislator Sarah Opendi who attended the event as speaker Jacob Oulanya’s representative said – the region should prioritize sports  as a way of beating rising cases of non-communicable diseases in the East African Community.

After what happened to the Ugandan legislators, we wonder when next these light moments will happen among the East African parliamentarians with the development of new variants like omicron, clearly indicating that we have to find the new normal, normal.

As Uganda is set to open its schools in January 2022 after along stay home for many students without school at all for about two years since the first Covid-19 outbreak, this comes as threatening news toward this progress as a country.