09 Apr 2020

 

Twenty-six people in Serowe Administrative Authority (SAA) have completed 14 days of home quarantine.

Serowe District Health Management Team public health specialist, Dr Onkgopotse Oduetse stated in an interview on April 8 that the 26 people did not develop any symptoms and had been evaluated and discharged.

Dr Oduetse explained that SAA did not have a quarantine site because ‘we do not have any port of entry. We only have an isolation site at old IHS that we share with Palapye Administrative Authority’.

She said quarantine sites at Palapye the Majestic Five and Cresta Botsalo hotels.

Dr Oduetse stated that the old IHS isolation site has had three clients being a South African male truck driver, who was picked during screening at Martins Drift border post and was admitted on March 24, had his sample taken for testing on the same date and the results came back negative on April 1 and was discharged April 3.

She said another client was a Zimbabwean woman who had been on quarantine at Palapye and developed flu like symptoms.

Dr Oduetse said the woman was admitted at Serowe isolation site on March 29, had her sample taken on March 30 and was awaiting results.

The third client she said was a Motswana woman truck driver between South Africa and Botswana.

She was admitted at Serowe isolation site on April 6, her sample taken on April 7 and was awaiting results.

With regards to disinfecting public places to fight the disease, Dr Oduetse explained that the DHMT did not have such a plan and neither did the Ministry of Health and Wellness, adding that areas where such was being done could be an initiative from other stakeholders to assist government in fighting the pandemic.

On how clinics in nearby villages were coping, Dr Oduetse said clinics were a part of DHMT and all the necessary resources were availed from DHMT.

A quarantine site is where clients who had travelled to high risk areas and are not showing any symptoms are kept for a period of 14 days (incubation period for COVID 19 to monitor if they would develop any symptom), while an isolation site is where clients who had travelled to high risk areas and have developed symptoms are kept for further investigation and management. ENDS