Uganda’s Minister of Health Ruth Aceng has urged women in the East African country to ‘keep away’ from long-distance cargo truck drivers.

Aceng spoke on Saturday while also confirming that three truck drivers; a Kenyan, a Ugandan and a Tanzanian had tested positive for the dreaded coronavirus.

“I appeal to all of you who live along the roads followed by the truck drivers including the women who interact with them for different purposes to stay away from these truck drivers. We do not hold cargo drivers until their results are released because they are transporting essential materials for the daily livelihoods of people,” She told a local media.

The landlocked Uganda mainly relies on cargo brought into the country by trucks, especially fuel shipped in from Europe and Asia via the ports of Mombasa port and Tanga in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania.

Despite a ban on all private and public transport, Uganda President Yoweri Museveni exempted the movement of trucks as part of the ‘essential commodities.’

Uganda had by Saturday confirmed 55 coronavirus cases and Museveni had also announced a lockdown in a bid to curb the spread of the Covid-19 disease there.