22 Mar 2020

The Acting General Manager at Phillip Matante International Airport, Mr Arabang Mosime has decried shortage of adequate resources at the facility’s health port.

Briefing a team of officials from Botswana Unified Revenue Service (BURS) that was on an inspection tour to check the preparedness of Francistown Airport, on Thursday Mr Mosime said lack of resources at the health port posed risks for both health professionals and visitors.

He said although the port was able to provide sanitizers at the moment, there was an urgent need for thermometer apparatus, saying currently the port shared the solitary apparatus with other ports such as Immigration.

“At the moment, the health care professionals rely only on details given by the visitors as they fill out health forms to provide their views on the status of their health and extent of their awareness of the virus,” he said.

Moreover, Mr Mosime suggested time might be ripe for the government to enact a law that would regulate pricing of goods to curb instances where some businesses hiked prices for goods on demand during crises such as was the case with sanitizers and masks.

Francistown District Commissioner, Ms Chabongwa Matsheka, noted that all personnel for the departments found at the airport, namely; Immigration, Civil Aviation, Health and Burs had been trained on basic safety measures against COVID-19.

Ms Matsheka further said that if the symptoms of the virus were detected on an arriving traveller, the individual would then be taken to Ntshe clinic which had been designated to isolate those suspected to be having the virus.

“By far there has not been any suspected case of coronavirus in Francistown,” she said.

The District Commissioner also applauded other stakeholders for assisting with ways in which information about the virus could be disseminated to the public.

For his part, BURS Acting Commissioner, Operations, Mr William Nkitseng said the tour followed temporary closure of 12 borders that the Botswana shared with South Africa.

It was to this end, he said, that BURS resolved to conduct a tour of some of the facilities that fell under its jurisdiction to inspect their preparedness.

Also, Mr Nkitseng relayed it was a priority to ensure that employees at entry points were safe and had the right protective gear as they were at the fore-front in the fight against the pandemic.

 “We need to also mobilize all resources needed in preventing the virus,” he added. 

The Director of Human Resources at BURS Ms Mama Maite urged the nation to not only rely on sanitizers that were already in short supply as a safety measure but also consider the use soap to wash hands regularly.

She also made an appeal to the public to be cautious of information disseminated about COVID-19 through social media platforms, urging that they should rely on credible sources of information such as the Ministry of Health and Wellness. Ends