18 Mar 2020

North East District (NED) epidemic response team has expressed misgivings over the effectiveness of the COVID-19 screening exercise due to illegal immigrants.

Speaking during a tour of Ramokgwebana border gate, Assistant Superintendent Otlaadisa Mogotsi of Tshesebe Police Station noted with displeasure that although health officers were screening travellers from Zimbabwe at the border gate, they were some who entered Botswana through ungazetted points.

He stated that the illegal immigrants were a high risk due to the fact that they could not be screened, adding that some caught public transport and intermingled with the public as they travelled as far as South Africa.

He said despite the fact that police and Botswasna Defence Force officers were deployed at some border villages to monitor the movements, some migrants’ continued to cut the border fence to enter the country.

Supt Mogotsi stated that some Batswana from the border villages connive with illegal immigrants, picked them up at the border fence and subsequently transported them to Francistown and even as far as Gaborone.

He requested the Ministry of Health and Wellness to provide the police with flash thermometres, to be able to screen illegal immigrants they come into contact with.

NED Health Management Team coordinator, Ms Rodah Phindela said COVID-19 screening at the border gate started on February 6 and over 45 000 travellers had been screened so far.

Ms Phindela said the response should be more rapid now that the COVID-19 cases were reported in South Africa, compared to last month when it had not reached Sub Sahara.

The coordinator indicated that so far, no suspected case had been reported locally, adding that Ntshe Clinic in Francistown had been set aside for isolation.

She said they were looking to assess some clinics nearer to the border gate, to reinforce the isolation services.

She urged every department to purchase protective clothing such as masks, gloves, liquid hand washing soap and sanitisers for their officers deployed at the border gate.

Ms Phindela said they had also embarked on an exercise to raise awareness at churches and schools.

The environmental health technician at the border gate, Ms Painah Nyathi said the normal procedure was to check passports to see if the visitors had travelled to the affected countries within 14 days.

She said every visitor was required to fill a form and provide their contacts and final destination, which she said was a challenge as some were reluctant to disclose where they were travelling to.

Ms Nyathi noted that the health technicians would then issue a gate pass to be produced at immigration office to confirm that the traveller had been screened.

She noted however that should a case arise, they would call the Emergency Medical Service in Francistown to fetch the suspect. Ends