We want to give you an update on the struggle with the novel coronavirus in Uganda.  As of May 4, there have been only 89 confirmed cases of infection in Uganda with no deaths and 52 patients recovered.  Despite the low incidence, the government has issued stay-at-home orders and the borders are closed in a pro-active step to prevent widespread infection.  Since Uganda is a land-locked country, shipments coming from overseas are transported by truck from the seaside port Mombasa, in Kenya, overland to Uganda.  The Ugandan Health Ministry has testing stations set up at the border entry from Kenya, and truck drivers are tested before being allowed to proceed into Uganda.  The Ministry of Health has a long history of fighting infectious disease outbreaks, and so our hope is that these early strict measures will successfully contain the spread of the virus.  PBS NewsHour recently featured a short segment on these capabilities in Uganda. Have a look at the video below and see what Uganda is doing during this pandemic.  While schools are closed for a month, the Ministry of Education has set a new schedule to recover lost study time for the students.  Schools in Uganda are in session year round, so when they re-open in a few weeks, the six-week break that typically occurs between terms will be shortened to two weeks, which will bring the learning schedule back on track by the end of the year. The schools in Uganda need our help now more than ever as their routine has been disrupted, like our schools in the U.S.  The challenges for the general public are of course severe in Uganda during stay-at-home restrictions, especially for the 4.4 million people living in Kampala.  They cannot grow food like their counterparts in the rural villages. Food stalls are permitted to stay open during this time, but vendors are required to sleep at the food stalls rather than returning to the village each night. As a result, the vendors have been sleeping on mats on the ground at their food stalls, but some are now contracting malaria from sleeping unprotected in the city.  The government is distributing mosquito nets to these food sellers. During times like this, we are reminded how important our work is in developing Uganda.