13 Oct 2020

A Standard Six Mantshwabisi RADS Hostel pupil has tested COVID-19 positive after coming into contact with a family member from Metsimotlhabe having the virus. 

Speaking in an interview on October 13, Letlhakeng Sub-district deputy district commissioner, Ms Ikgopoleng Lekoape said  authorities responded swiftly to the situation by screening and swabbing her close contacts.

Fumigation of both the dormitory and classroom would be carried out without delay, she said. 

Ms Lekoape also said 55 public officers who commuted from Gaborone and Molepolole were tested last Friday as they interacted with many people travelling to and from work. 

Already 53 had tested negative while two were awaiting their results.

Noting that greater Gaborone  had been a red zone for some time now, Ms Lekoape said it was therefore important to put measures in place to stop the virus from spreading. 

Giving a scenario of how easy it was for the virus to spread rapidly, the deputy district commissioner said one person was re-swabbed at Seletse settlement on September 23 as his initial test was inconclusive and his negative results came back on September 29. 

Ms Lekoape said all Mphuthe Junior Secondary School teachers and classmates of the inclusive result case were swabbed on September 17 and all tested negative. 

She said a five-year-old girl tested positive in Molepolole after visiting Ngware but her close contacts, who were followed up and swabbed, all tested negative. 

Fourteen close contacts at Salajwe and four at Diphuduhudu were identified and swabbed on October 7 for a woman who tested positive in Gaborone and had visited Salajwe before her results were released, she said. 

Ms Lekoape said the woman also had 13 contacts from the mini-bus she travelled on with the driver and conductor having already been swabbed. 

From the mini-bus registration list, four have been referred to Gaborone, one to Molepolole, two were in Letlhakeng, two tested in Gaborone while another two could not  be reached as their cell phones were off and one had given a wrong number, she explained. 

Ms Lekoape said two close contacts from Gaborone were swabbed at Takatokwane and had tested negative while one client, who was swabbed in Gaborone as a contact, went to Motokwe before results were released whose six close contacts had been swabbed and were awaiting results. 

One close contact at Ditshegwane was swabbed on October 8 and was also awaiting results, said Ms Lekoape.

She urged all to obey the COVID-19 health protocols, stay home and reduce unnecessary travelling.ends