25 Mar 2020

Ministry of Health and Wellness has cautioned employees against absconding from work under the pretence that they are quarantined for COVID-19.

Ministry’s Public Relation Officer, Ms Doreen Motshegwa advised in an interview that employees should refrain from self-quarantining themselves without the consent of eligible health practitioner.

Social distancing, she said involved taking steps to limit the number of people one should come into close contact with to help to limit the spread of COVID-19 in the community.

She said in order to prevent transmission of COVID-19 in Botswana, ‘government has recommended that all residents practice social distancing and one way to achieve this mission is to quarantine for 14 days individuals who might have been in contact with someone with COVID-19, but who are not diagnosed or infected by the virus’. 

She explained that any individual who is put under quarantine would be issued with a home monitoring tool to constantly monitor their health progress, adding that the quarantined individual would also be issued with an official ‘on quarantine form’ which would also be forwarded to their employer.

She thus dismissed any possibility of individuals going in self-quarantine without the consent of the health practitioner.

She pleaded with quarantined individuals to postpone all nonessential medical appointments like dental cleaning, eye exam and routine check-up until they were out of quarantine and to inform all concerned parties ahead of time if they had an essential appointment during the quarantine time.

She said individuals on quarantine should avoid sharing household items such as dishes, towels, and bedding.

With COVID-19 dominating the news, Ms Motshegwa noted  that there was confusion around the use of words like quarantine and self-isolation. 

She said self-isolation was for individuals who had been diagnosed with COVID-19 while quarantine was used to separate and restrict movement of individuals suspected to be at risk of having the COVID-19 infection. 

Furthermore, an official at the Ministry of Health and Wellness, Dr Oratile Nfokeng cautioned the members of the public against violating quarantine conditions saying it was in violation of Section 25(4) of Public Health Act of 2013.

She said any person who contravened any provision of section 25(4) would be committing an offence and would be liable to a fine not acceding P5 000 or be imprisoned for a term not exceeding 12 months or both. Ends