16 Mar 2020

A public health emergency committee meeting held in Kasane on March 16 has taken a resolution to recommend to government to close Pandamatenga border post because it is not screening for coronavirus.

Pandamatenga border post is the only entry point out of the four that has not been included in the screening of coronavirus.

Screening is being conducted at Ngoma border post, Kazungula Ferry border and Zimbabwean border.

The meeting also resolved that the Kasane regional immigration office border gate be closed as well because there was no screening at the entry post.  

The resolutions followed a briefing by Dr Amos Mabuku of Kasane Primary Hospital on behalf of the District Health Management Team (DHMT).

He said Pandamatenga border was left out for screening because it did not receive many visitors compared to the other three.

It emerged that people were now using the border in high numbers to avoid being screened in other borders. The meeting resolved to use Ngoma Educational centre as an additional isolation centre for the Chobe District.

The office of the district commissioner and the office of the Chobe District Council secretary were tasked to avail vacant institutional houses to be used as additional isolation centres in Kasane township because the township, as a destination of international tourists, was a high risk.

Currently, there were only three isolation rooms identified, two at the hospital and one at Kasane Airport.   

The meeting also resolved that illegal immigrants must be screened before taken to prison and that there must be training for police officers on how to handle such people to avoid possible exposure to the disease.

The meeting was also informed that various lodges and hotels in the district had taken a step to train their personnel.

District commissioner, Ms Sekgabo Makgosa, said the meeting was called on emergency because Chobe District was at high risk because of its position in the region as a destination for tourists.

She explained that the purpose of the meeting was to review and provide update on the outbreak as well as to strategise going forward. It emerged during the meeting that shops in Kasane had run out of sanitizers.

Meanwhile, all seven American Perce corps who were assigned to Chobe District would be going back to the United States following the country’s announcement to withdraw them for assigned countries for possible exposure to the virus. Ends