23 Aug 2020

North West district has recorded a second positive case of COVID-19.

Briefing the media on August 21, the Ngami District Health Management Team (DHMT) coordinator, Dr Malebogo Kebabonye revealed that one of their employees, a 53-year-old ambulance driver tested positive on August 16.

She said the patient had travelled on an official trip to Gaborone accompanied by a nurse who had since tested negative.

The case followed one in which a woman was diagnosed on June 27 after she had appeared before  Chanoga customary court for sentencing.

Currently, she said the patient was held at an isolation centre at Matshwane Clinic noting that out of 22 people linked to him via contact tracing, nine tested negative. 

She also noted that the isolation centre had four active cases at the moment of which three were transfer in from Chobe region.

 Dr Kebabonye said out of the three active cases, two were Zambians while one was a local who was a returning from Russia.

She said the patients were transferred to Maun because Chobe district does not have a fully functional isolation centre adding that all were stable.

Dr Kebabonye also pointed out that the corpse of a 23-year old male repatriated from South Africa, where he was referred to for management of a different illness tested positive.  

The deceased, from Semboyo village, was buried on August 15. 

Meanwhile, the DMHT reported that they conducted 382 laboratory tests to date of which 379 tested negative. 

Dr Kebabonye also revealed that they had 177 people in quarantine majority of whom  were returning experts employed by some mining companies while some were citizens of various countries who were repatriated.

Currently, the district, she said had only six people in a facility based quarantine.

 Dr Kebabonye acknowledged that frontliners were at risk of contracting coronavirus , adding that the DHMT had embarked on routine testing exercise to ensure the workers were safe to deliver quality services to the communities.

She explained that they were following the health guidelines by ensuring that nurses performed their duties effectively, Dr  Kebabonye added that they carried out some assessment gauge exposure to high risk and low risk.

She urged the communities to support the health workers, stop stigmatisation and also to ensure hygiene all the time. 

Members of the communities were advised to isolate themselves if they felt unwell and avoid going into communal areas. 

Dr Kebabonye warned that COVID-19 easily spread, noting that it was undeniable that the disease was within the community given high movement across the zones.

Dr Kebabonye assured the community that they would keep them informed to ensure that they made proper decisions.

Members of the community were also encouraged to always adhere to the preventative measures such as regular hand washing or use of sanitisers, use of masks all the time while in public space, maintaining of social distancing and avoiding unnecessary travelling. ends