The Ugandan government is considering a second Covid-19 lockdown to manage a sharp increase in new infections.

Health officials in the East African country say more contagious variants of the virus, especially from India, Nigeria, the UK and South Africa, are to blame for the increase in new cases.

Dr Diana Atwine of the health ministry said “some areas must be locked down unless people get back to observing SOPs (standard operating procedures)”.

“Otherwise, our systems will be overwhelmed and we shall see scenarios we have been seeing in some countries,” she said.

Critics, however, say the government is partly to blame for the high number of cases after it relaxed measures against the virus after January’s general election.

Uganda’s total confirmed cases stand at 44,594, with 361 deaths.