26 Aug 2014

Botswana has instituted a travel ban to and from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) following an outbreak of the Ebola virus in that country.


The acting head of Chobe District Health Management Team (DHMT), Dr Dorcas Mufalali, said in an interview that they had deployed nurses at border gates to work closely with port health officers to screen any Batswana returning from the DRC upon entry into Botswana.


She explained that they crossed over to Zambia on August 25 to inform their immigration officials that Botswana would no longer be allowing travellers from DRC into Botswana.

 Dr Mufalali was confident of the level of preparedness of the country in preventing the virus from making its way into Botswana.

She added that upon screening, those with high temperatures will be quarantined and isolated for observation. “We already have an isolation room in place for that,” she said.

DRC joins Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Nigeria as countries whose travellers shall be denied entry into Botswana as a preventative way of reducing the risk of spreading the killer disease. Ends