27 Sep 2020

Kgalagadi District Council chairperson, Mr Hendrick Jacobs has called on all to focus on unlocking new opportunities amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and adapt to the new normal.

Addressing a full council recently, he said the COVID-19 pandemic had caused a scar to the economy hence the need to adopt new approaches of solving challenges.

He said it was highly imperative for every individual to retrospect, change lifestyle and pull together to fight the pandemic. He added that it was vital to employ innovative solutions for economic transformation in agriculture, manufacturing, tourism, entertainment and sporting activities.

Mr Jacobs further noted that COVID-19 had brought financial constraints and called on all to be extra cautious as cases of COVID-19 continue to increase at an alarming rate.  

He said Kgalagadi District had registered 16 COVID-19 cases, adding that there was need to be vigilant and ensure continuous adherence to public health protocols in order to stop the virus from spreading.

Kgalagadi North has recorded 13 cases while Kgalagadi South has recorded three. Meanwhile, the district has not recorded any COVID-19 deaths.

He said the Kgalagadi District Health Management Teams (DHMT) continued to strive to deal with the pandemic, and that they had prepared two isolation centres with a holding capacity of 15 patients.

Kgalagadi north has six while Kgalagadi South has nine.

Since June 2020 to 15 September 2020 the district quarantined a total of 166 out of which 114 were border jumpers while 52 were contact tracing of index cases.

As for Kgalagadi South, he said three COVID-19 cases were recorded but that all contacts traced tested negative.

The Bokspits/Struizendam Cllr highlighted that findings on contact tracing reflected that the source of infections was Princess Marina Hospital in Gaborone, Hukuntsi Primary Hospital and the Kang Clinic.

However, he said measures had been put in place and new strategies developed to prevent COVID-19 infections.

Moreover, the council chairperson expressed concern at the increasing number of COVID-19 cases in schools.  Some of the schools that recorded positive cases were Kang and Werda primary schools where contact tracing was duly done.

He divulged that schools were faced with challenges of non-compliance after observations were made that there were pupils and staff members who still failed adhere to COVID-19 protocols such as wearing of masks and maintaining social distancing particularly during break time at feeding points.

Furthermore, it was observed that there was no regular cleaning and sanitizing of surface areas of classrooms as per COVID-19 protocols, and that some pupils still failed to practice regular hand washing.

He said more should be done to ensure that health protocols were followed to reduce chances of coronavirus spreading. ENDS