02 May 2020

 Botswana has registered three more recoveries of COVID-19 patients.
    Briefing the media in Gaborone  on May 1, director of Health Services Dr Malaki Tshipayagae said the number of recoveries had now increased to eight and the number of hospitalised patients had been reduced to 14.

    Dr Tshipayagae also said with effect from May 1, wearing of face masks would be mandatory when people leave their houses.
    He said failure to do so would attract a fine of P5 000 or six months imprisonment.
    Dr Tshipayagae advised the public not to run around looking for masks, especially surgical or N95 ones in pharmacies as those were in high demand at health facilities for use by health personnel and as such the market supply was failing to meet demand. He stated that people should use cloth masks or anything usable to cover their mouths and noses.
    He said the cloth masks were washable and reusable, therefore more convenient and cheap, whereas the surgical ones were disposable and also expensive.
 
    Regarding the contact tracing that the ministry has since embarked on, he said so far everything was going according to plan and the results from the exercise would be released the following week.
    Ends