Airtel Uganda today confirmed that it has contributed UGX1.25 billion (approximately USD328,400) to Uganda’s Ministry of Health, primarily to support health workers on the frontline in the battle against COVID-19.
“As the number of confirmed cases in the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) updates multiple times a day, health workers continue to fight the outbreak on the front lines and this puts them at risk of contracting the virus due to their proximity to the most severe cases,” read the company statement released today.
“Airtel Uganda recognizes that without an influx of urgently needed protective equipment, more healthcare workers may fall ill, reducing the availability of care for patients. They are working in stressful environments, not just because the virus is little understood, but because in most settings they are under-protected and are themselves vulnerable to infection,” further read the statement.
Commenting about the contribution, one of the biggest contributions made to date by a single private sector player, Mr. V.G. Somasekhar, the Airtel Uganda Managing Director said; “Now more than ever, we all need to apply our capabilities to the needs of nurses, doctors, midwives and community health workers. At this moment of crisis, no country can cope with what they need alone. The private sector needs to mobilize resources, alongside national governments, to fight the raging pandemic.”
Speaking on behalf of the Ministry of Health, the State Minister of Health, Hon. Robinah Nabbanja said that Airtel’s donation demonstrated “a real commitment to supporting our health workers who are battling day after day to defeat this pandemic.”
“As individuals, members of the public should strictly follow the key hygiene measures and social distancing, to help flatten the curve of the epidemic, avoid overwhelming hospitals, and preserve access to healthcare,” she said.
As of April 29th, 2020, Uganda’s total confirmed Covid-19 cases stood at 79. Out of these, 52 have recovered and been discharged while 14 cases remained active but stable and under hospitalisation.
Pearl Bank Celebrates Customers in Festive Campaign Dubbed Pearl SantaUganda has not registered any new cases in over 72 hours and the cumulative number of tested cases stand at 27,275 and Uganda has not registered any Covid-19 related death.
The first Ugandan Covid-19 patient to fully recover from the disease was discharged on April 11th, 2020 after testing negative twice for the disease.
Other interventions made by Airtel
Airtel has already taken several steps to help mitigate the impact of social distancing on its customers and the country at large during the coronavirus outbreak. These include:
- Guaranteeing network availability and stability by rolling out additional 50 sites during this period.
- Encouraging customers to embrace electronic transactions and the use cashless modes of payment by removing all the charges on all on-net P2P (person to person) transactions, Bank to Wallet transactions, Airtel Money Pay, and Wallet to Bank transactions.
- Free SMS broadcasts by the Ministry of Health on COVID-19.
- Creating a Call Centre, within the Airtel Call Centre, for the Ministry of Health COVID-19 related calls and inquiries.
- Zero-rating the website for the Ministry of Health, World Health Organization, and many other websites where the public can access information from relevant authorities on the Pandemic as well as educational websites to enable students to get free access to education materials while at home.
- Introducing Airtime cashback for community champions through our ‘Kyakabi Be The Champion’ promotion to encourage subscribers to stay at home and share airtime digitally with their families and friends while standing a chance to earn 3% back.
Airtel Uganda is part of Airtel Africa, a pan-African telecommunications company with operations in 14 countries across Africa. Airtel Africa is driven by the vision of providing affordable and innovative mobile services to all and is supported in pursuing this vision by its largest shareholder, Bharti Airtel. Its product offerings include 2G, 3G, and 4G wireless voice and data services and mobile commerce through ‘Airtel Money’. Airtel Africa had over 97 million customers across its operations at the end of December 2018.
