Uganda's Ebola clock ends around 27 August.

🏨 EA HOSPITALITY PULSE — SPECIAL EDITION
📅 Saturday, 25 July 2026 | 🇺🇬🇷🇼🇰🇪🇹🇿

Uganda's Ebola clock ends around 27 August. Most operators will plan the wrong recovery — here's the 72-hour playbook.

1️⃣ THE DATE IS KNOWABLE: ~27 AUGUST
Uganda discharged its last Ebola patient on 16 July, starting the WHO 42-day countdown (WHO Afro). Last case was 21 June; 20 cases, 2 deaths, 15 of them imported from DRC. Absent new cases, the outbreak can be declared over around 27 August — 33 days out.
🎯 So what: Build your Sept-Dec recovery campaign NOW and load it before 20 August. Brief trade partners the week of 17 August. By the time bookings visibly return, your competitors have taken the share.
🏷 Bush, City | UG | Confirmed

2️⃣ THE ALL-CLEAR WON'T LIFT THE US ADVISORY
This is the misread that will cost money. State's Level 4 (renewed 4 June) cites crime, health, terrorism AND unrest — health is one of four grounds. The outbreak ending clears one pillar, not the advisory.
🎯 So what: Anchor your recovery messaging on the WHO declaration, not on a State Department change that may never come. Plan for Level 4 persisting.
🏷 Bush, City | UG | Confirmed

3️⃣ USE THE DIVERGENCE — IT'S YOUR BEST ASSET
The US CDC rates Ebola in DRC/Uganda Level 2 "Practice Enhanced Precautions" while State says Do Not Travel — a split inside the same government. The UK FCDO (updated 1 July) carries no country-wide warning at all, only regional advice for western Uganda.
🎯 So what: Your UK and European book is defensible on official grounds; your US book is not. Ring-fence the messaging — don't alarm markets that haven't moved.
🏷 All segments | UG, RW | Confirmed

4️⃣ WATCH MARBURG, NOT EBOLA
A separate Marburg death (18-month-old, Kyegegwa, western Uganda, confirmed 2 July) was caught by Ebola surveillance. Isolated so far, no secondary cases. If it spreads, the clock resets.
🎯 So what: This is your single daily monitoring item. Everything else is on a schedule; this isn't.
🏷 Bush | UG | Confirmed

━━━━━━━━━
📡 THE 72-HOUR PROTOCOL
▪️ 0-6h: Screenshot the State and CDC pages side by side. Confirm your distance from Kyegegwa in km. Call insurers — get cover status IN WRITING. That decides whether guests CAN come, not just whether they want to.
▪️ 6-24h: Split the book by source market. Triage US arrivals inside 90 days. Offer free date changes into Q1 2027 BEFORE anyone asks for a refund — a postponement keeps the cash, a refund loses it.
▪️ 24-72h: Measure PACE, not cancellations. Bush operators: August is committed and will look fine while your 2027 season quietly dies. Defend the far book. City/MICE: audit every corporate group through Q4 — duty-of-care blocks are automatic under Level 4.

⛔ DO NOT
▪️ Discount. This is a permission-and-insurance problem, not a price problem. Compete on flexibility and inclusions.
▪️ Wait for the all-clear to start marketing. By 27 August it's too late to begin.
▪️ Assume the advisory drops with the outbreak.

💬 Kenya and Tanzania operators: correct the "East Africa is one outbreak zone" framing explicitly. Nobody will do it for you.
— EA Hospitality Pulse | Daily intelligence for city, bush & beach properties