20 Aug 2020

Bobonong cluster has registered six cases of COVID-19, five of which are active and one recovered.

This was stated by Greater Selebi Phikwe regional health management coordinator, Mr Mpaphi Mbulawa when addressing a press briefing on August 19 in Selebi Phikwe.  The first case to be recorded, Mr Mbulawa said, was a local border jumper, who entered the country from South Africa using an ungazetted point, a practice he pleaded with the community to refrain from.

Mr Mbulawa said the six cases were four males and two females of ages ranging between 23 and 67, while two of the five active cases were from Gobojango Junior Secondary School and three from Bobonong village.  He urged communities residing in the Greater Selebi Phikwe Zone to minimise unnecessary travelling to enable the health workers to contain the virus.

Contact tracing in the Bobonong cluster is ongoing and the community is encouraged to cooperate with the assigned team and other stakeholders.

Mr Mbulawa said active cases would be managed within the region instead of being referred to Sir Ketumile Masire Teaching Hospital in Gaborone as it used to be the norm.  “We have increased the number of health personnel in Bobirwa to speed up contact tracing. As frontline workers, we are committed to keeping the virus under control,” he said.

Mr Mbulawa said 150 people had been swabbed and quarantined. For his part, Bobirwa Sub-region chief education officer, Mr Moses Tshetlhana said teachers who got tested turned out negative, but were awaiting results for the second test.

He said health workers and other stakeholders provided counselling to teachers and pupils, adding that the school head, deputy school head and the administration personnel were quarantined.

“Classes have not been suspended despite the confirmed positive cases,” stated Mr Tshetlhana.

Parents were urged to work closely with teachers to ensure children adhered to health regulations all the time because time spent in quarantine meant pupils lost out academically. Officer Commanding No.10 District, Senior Superintendent Bonosi Molapisi said 104 people were charged for not wearing masks in the Bobonong Cluster.

He said because Bobirwa shared borders with South Africa and Zimbabwe, it was vulnerable to border jumpers, noting that border jumping was a crime that attracted a sentence of not more than three years in prison or a P5 000 fine. ENDS