The number of Ugandans dying from road accidents, robberies and attacks has dramatically reduced thanks to the COVID-19 lockdown, Pathologist and Director of Police Medical Services Dr Moses Byaruhanga has said.
Dr Byaruhana attributed this trend to the nighttime curfew, imposed by President Museveni since March 2020 to date. The first curfew announced in March did not allow Ugandans to move between 7 p.m. and 6am. The time has since been adjusted to start at 9 p.m to 6am.
While speaking to the media on Friday, Dr Byaruhanga noted that before the lockdown, his office conducted an average of 230 postmortems a month at the City Mortuary in Kampala, but the number had since reduced to 40 during the lockdown.
In 2019 alone, Police examined 8,685 bodies countrywide translating into 23 people being killed every day in accidents or criminal attacks.
The biggest number of bodies are taken to the mortuary for examination by police during night hours as this is when people usually die in road accidents or are killed by thugs.
Byaruhanga argues that most of these deaths happened between 6 pm and 5 am when people are drink driving, while others are knocked staggering on roads because of alcohol. Also during this time frame, bar brawls are high while thugs also find it convenient to carry out their business in the night.
The cases have however has started rising again as a result of some people are disobeying curfew restrictions and end up being attacked by a few criminal elements also walking in the night.