25 Aug 2020

 Ngamiland District commissioner, Mr Keolopile Leipego, has raised a concern about some government departments and businesses, which violate health protocols.

Mr Leipego said in an interview that  during inspection exercise, they observed that some businesses and departments were not complying to the set COVID-19 regulations such as maintaining registers, checking temperature, wearing masks and washing hands.

Failure to be complaint, he said, posed a risk of spreading coronavirus and urged all institutions to do the right thing.

Mr Leipego also complained about a lot of movement in the district and appealed to community members to conduct themselves in an acceptable manner.

The easing of movement within zones, he said, did not mean that Botswana had won the fight against COVID-19 pandemic, hence the need for people to continue observing safety health protocols.

He appealed to the community to reduce unnecessary movements and also demand to be registered, sanitised and checked temperatures before they could be assisted.

“It is disturbing as there is a lot of relaxation as far as prevention is concerned. The vibe to put up water dispensary systems in public areas, businesses and departments have vanished and people are moving freely without observing hygiene practices and registering their contacts for easy contact tracing if the need arises,” he stated.

Mr Leipego said the community should understand that the country had reached a stage where all should be vigilant since some zones continued to register COVID-19 local transmission cases.

 He also called all those returning from red zones to contact health officers for advice. To ensure the disease did not spread to other zones, he said it was advisable that they undergo testing or be quarantined.

He also noted that some people had the habit of doing home quarantines if they felt not well without contacting health officials to assess and determine if the quarantine was necessary.

Mr Leipego said it was not advisable and encouraged people to inform health officials so that they could advise accordingly on whether they could go home or to health facility based quarantines.

Meanwhile, a recent Savingram from the Regional Health Management Team (RHMT) stated that a pronouncement had been made that all people travelling from greater Gaborone should undergo testing before leaving the zone.

In the event the test was not done, upon arrival the travelers could be subjected to testing or quarantine as deemed by the hosting zone.

To respond effectively to the pronouncement, the district came up with a planned approach to ensure continued surveillance. 

The RHMT requested that all departments who had officers trained as contact tracers to re-organise and use them as the response focal people within their offices.

The trained officers were expected to act as focal persons who would liaise with the RHMT on all issues concerning the official travel of officers within their departments in an out of the affected zones.

The Savingram indicated that the contact training group would conduct the initial screening important to classify the threat posed. Ends