14 May 2020

The ubilant mood that characterised the past seven hours has been cut short as the Director of Health Services, Dr Malaki Tshipayagae retracted the statement he made this morning that use of permits would be no longer be enforced.
    Addressing a media brief on the afternoon of May 14, Dr Tshipayagae said the statement that he made in the morning of the same day through Radio Botswana’s call-in programme was being retracted as per the advise of legal experts, who suggested that the status quo remain.

   Earlier on in the morning Dr Tshipayagae made a statement to the effect that permits would not be needed for inter-zonal travel, ‘beginning Thursday 14 midnight’, which statement was celebrated by Batswana in various social platforms.
    He said after the interpretation of the law by the legal experts, he had to address Batswana on the issue and retract the first statement, which he also apologised for.
    Dr Tshipayagae said as such the use of permits would continue up until the next update, where all the necessary explanations would be made.
    He said the mandatory quarantine would continue to be practiced for everyone who enters the country so as to enable the health officials to conduct proper tests after ten days following arrival.
    Dr Tshipayagae said to date there were 280 people in quarantines who would be tested after the ten-day mark.
    He said the businesses and government offices should always comply to the set protocols as next week the number of employees would be increasing from 50 to 75 per cent while it would be 25 to 50 per cent for others.
    The director also said businesses and government offices should enforce the use of the safety, health and environmental officers to monitor the temperatures of staff members reporting for duty.
    He also urged owners of businesses and officials at government offices to regularly disinfect their areas of operations. Ends