02 Sep 2020

Botswana’s decision to focus on target testing rather than community testing was informed by scientific findings that coronavirus was highly dynamic.

Presidential COVID-19 task  team coordinator, Dr Kereng Masupu said although countries such as South Africa and US had engaged in massive community testing exercises, Botswana would continue sticking to target testing accompanied by public education.

“A person may test negative now, only to get exposed to the virus a minute later, so there is not much use to conduct community testing when the scales can tilt so fast,” he said.

Dr Masupu said public education was one of the major recipes for success adding that other measures such as zonal barriers were not as effective.

He was responsing to  a question from Jwaneng mayor, Ms Olga Ditsie on Tuesday as to why the country did not start community testing.

Ms Ditsie said her enquiry was informed by the fact that Jwaneng cases were only discovered after the Debswana Jwaneng mine tested all its employees.

The results showed that the virus might have been in existence all along, she said. 

In addition, Dr Masupu said the team was pleased with the level of preparedness in Jwaneng as well as the good working relations that existed between the mine and the public service.

Such good working relations, he said, were a necessity for defeating the virus.

He implored the regional team not to be demoralized by a few lapses but to use them to act more effectively.

Department of Health Services director, Dr Malaki Tshipayagae also applauded the area for its preparedness.

He said the two isolation centres in Jwaneng had the capacity to accommodate cases for the area under normal circumstances.

Dr Tshipayagae advised people not to forget to adhere to the tested preventative measures encompassing wearing of masks, washing hands and social distancing.

He cautioned the Jwaneng community to desist from taking unnecessary trips to red zones such as greater Gaborone as well as to desist from holding social events.

 Dr Tshipayagae was reacting to the revelation that although the first Jwaneng cases were traced to Gaborone, most spread after a group of people held a social session in town.

In his briefing, Ministry of Health and Wellness public health specialist, Dr Lebapotswe Tlale said some of the challenges faced were that clients went home after testing before they knew their results, which exposed more people in case such clients were positive.

He said there was also a high breach of home quarantine requirements.

Early identification and isolation of cases had also proved problematic, said Dr Tlale.

To address the challenges, he said, strict supervision of those in home quarantine, including sporadic home visits, had to be ensured.

 He also suggested that 80 per cent of close contacts were swabbed and quarantined within 24 hours. Ends