16 Aug 2020

Following the recent COVID-19 outbreak at Masa Primary School, selected pupils from Standard 1 to Standard 4 were on August 13 tested for the second time after the first contact testing that was conducted in July.

In an interview with BOPA, Community Health Nurse for Greater Gaborone District Health Management Team (DHMT), Ms Dimpho Keabonye said they were testing the pupils at the school instead of at their individual households to speed up the process.

“We have realised that during our previous testing, we did not cover as many households as we had wanted per day. It is important to note that as per the COVID-19 health regulations, there is a number of set days allocated for the second test to be conducted, hence the decision to test the pupils in one common area,” she said.

Ms Keabonye said the first group was tested on July 29, after news broke that there was a possible positive case at the school, adding that the contacts were then subsequently quarantined at various lodgings.

“Out of the individuals that were tested, we found out that some were positive and from that information, further tracing was conducted and more classes were tested,” she said.

Initially, Ms Keabonye said three classes were to be tested, but unfortunately, one of the contacts tested positive, which resulted in one more class being tested.

She also explained that the reason for the second round of tests was for verification purposes as the first results did not verify if a person had the virus because symptoms usually developed over time.

Meanwhile, one of the parents of the pupils who was due to be tested said when she first heard of the outbreak, she panicked, but due to the support from Masa Primary School management, she accepted the situation and ensured that she and her family self-isolated as per the COVID-19 health protocols, whilst awaiting the second round of testing to be conducted.

Ms Keabonye assured the public that her team was taking all the necessary COVID-19 health precautions to ensure the safe handling of the pupils during the testing exercise. ENDS