Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni has said the country is preparing a 40,000-bed field hospital at Namboole Stadium in the capital, Kampala, for coronavirus patients.

The president said the Ministry of Health was initially planning for 9,000-bed facility but he had instructed that the capacity be increased.

Uganda has so far recorded 657 cases of Covid-19, the respiratory illness caused by coronavirus.

Museveni said the country had managed to prevent coronavirus-related deaths but warned that as the numbers increased there could be deaths.

President Museveni criticised some people for not following regulations to social distance by attending burials and weddings.

He said to stop community transmissions of the virus people needed to be more careful and stay at home if they had nothing important to do.