Kigali: The East African Legislative Assembly has reiterated regional joint and coordinated approaches in the fight to contain the COVID-19 pandemic at the EAC.
EALA Members stated at a virtual (via video conference) meeting chaired by the Speaker, Ngoga Martin, that such initiatives would complement existing measures currently in place by the Partner States.
During the meeting, Members took the opportunity to provide feedback on their recent activities in the Partner States and to appraise developments in the Partner States with regards to level of preparedness to combat COVID- 19.
The salient issues of the findings of the various chapters of EALA in the Partner States: include enhanced measures by Partner States to effect social distancing, usage of masks, lockdown (or partial lockdown) and community/random testing in some of the Partner States, sensitization and hand-washing initiatives among others.
The Members noted that Partner States’ economies, like all others in the globe, had taken major hits and lauded EAC governments’ efforts been undertaken to provide stimulus packages to ameliorate the economic challenges.
The session was called to report back on the recent activities taken by the House to assess preparedness by Partner States to combat the COVID-19 virus pandemic in the EAC region.
The activity took place in the Partner States between 18th March 2020 to 7th April 2020. A day earlier (March 17th, 2020), at its 45th Meeting held virtually, the EALA Commission noted with concern the alarming spread of COVID-19 in the East Africa region and the globe.
Over the last three weeks, all the six Committees of the House have continued to convene virtually, in the respective EAC capitals to consider their various reports, prior to presenting tabling and subsequent debates at plenary.
EALA has taken the video conference approach in line with the measures in the Partner States and globe to commit to containing the COVID-19 pandemic by minimizing and restricting movement. (End)