Uganda restricts travel from 16 countries including UK and US because of coronavirus

Uganda has restricted visitors from some countries with what it terms high cases of coronavirus, including China, France, Germany, Iran, Italy, South Korea, and Spain.

"Government has decided to ask travelers from the affected countries not to come to Uganda because the high cases they are reporting can easily be imported into the country," the country's health minister Jane Ruth Aceng said in a statement earlier this week.

A revised advisory released Wednesday by the Health Ministry increased the number of high-risk countries from 7 to 16, including the United States and the UK. The other countries include the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Austria, and Malaysia. In the new statement, travelers from these countries are urged to consider "postponing non-essential travel to Uganda."

Aceng said those who insist on visiting the East African nation from these countries would have to self-quarantine at their own cost for 14 days either at home or at a government facility. Ugandans in affected countries are not exempt from the travel restriction.

Uganda also postponed the 2020 United Nations G77 and China Summit scheduled for mid-April in the capital of Kampala due to the coronavirus threat, the minister said.

More than 6,000 delegates from 136 member states were due to attend.

Rwanda Air, Kenya Airways and Morocco's Royal Air Maroc are among some African airlines that have suspended flights to China. Ethiopian Airlines, however, tweeted that it will keep operating flights to China while adhering to international standards to ensure the safety of its passengers.