23 Apr 2020

 All 20 contacts of a nurse who tested positive for COVID-19 have tested negative in Kgalagadi South.

Speaking in an interview on Wednesday, Tsabong Primary Hospital chief nursing officer, Ms Tootini Mackenzie, said contact tracing was done speedily and with precision.

She said all those who had gotten into contact with the nurse were put under self-quarantine and were tested. 

The nurse, who works for Block 8 clinic in Gaborone, tested positive after random testing recently. The nurse had visited his home village before lockdown and also prior to a special sitting of Parliament where he was deployed.

On another issue, Ms Mackenzie stated that all 18 Kgalagadi Trans-frontier Park employees who were recently put under quarantine at the park tested negative for COVID-19.

She said they encouraged everyone to continue to observe health protocols to maintain a COVID-19 negative status.  

Ms Mackenzie emphasized that even though they were negative, health officials continued to keep an eye on them and provided necessary support to those who were discharged to bring them back into the community.

She said there were two social workers on the ground and one counselor from Botswana Christian AIDS Intervention Programme (BOCAIP) who provided psycho-social support.

So far, Kgalagadi South has not reported any positive case and health officials continued to apply prevention strategy by having three teams conducting public health education and working with rapid response teams.

Ms Mackenzie added that some of those who were quarantined experienced stigma either from family members or community.

Thus, she said the three public health education teams were deployed to deal with stigma and engage the communities for acceptance.

When giving a general picture of COVID-19 testing statistics in the area, she said ever since the declaration of the mandatory quarantine for people who came from other countries, they received six people who entered the country through Ramatlabama border post.

The people were asked to undergo self-isolation and were tested accordingly and their results were negative.

She said since March 26 to date, health officials quarantined 47 people at Tsabong Unified Senior Secondary School and 33 have already been discharged.

Only 14 people were currently under quarantine at Mokha Lodge and Garden View hotel after being moved from the secondary school because the conditions did not meet quarantine standards.

Ms Mackenzie said the main challenge in the district was continued contravening of regulations by some who entered the country through un-gazzeted points. ends