04 Aug 2020

Jwaneng has registered its first COVID 19-patient.

The head of the District Health Management Team, Dr Evariste Muteba confirmed the case in an interview, stating that the patient was an employee of  Debswana Jwaneng mine and that his results came positive on Tuesday.

“This is the second test so we can safely say he is a patient. Sometime last week the mine asked for permission to test its employees, and that is how the patent was identified. The mine has already tested about 350 employees. At the moment the patient is at our isolation centre and we have sent his samples to the national laboratory in Gaborone for a third test. We are expecting the results late today (Tuesday), he said.

Dr Muteba said that the third test was conducted to eliminate any doubts. He said the patient was to be transferred to Sir Ketumile Masire Teaching Hospital on Wednesday. He also said that a team of health personnel was on the ground doing contact tracing and had already identified about six close contacts that would be quarantined.

Among the places that the patient is said to have visited is Pick and Pay Supermarket and Absa bank in Jwaneng, Molepolole as well as Lentsweletau. Dr Muteba said that all the places would be covered during contact tracing. Ends