17 Dec 2020

Sowa Town deputy district commissioner, Mr Tsaone Nkarabang says since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in March, the police have intensified patrols.

Briefing Sowa Town Full Council on Wednesday, Mr Nkarabang said the police formed a task team, which included other stakeholders such as bye-law officers, environmental health and commercial affairs personnel to patrol the streets.

During their patrols, he said, as of April to November, they detected and registered 70 COVID-19 protocols, non-compliance cases and 44 had been completed as accused persons pleaded guilty and paid admission of guilt fines.

Mr Nkarabang said his office had observed that there were illegal gatherings as well as cases of children gathering in the streets or playing in parks, wearing no masks.

He said parents had been advised to keep their children at home, failing which measures would be taken against parents.

He said that Botswana Ash (BOTASH) started screening every person entering the lease area on a 24-hr basis and made  follow-ups as truck drivers could stay at the mine for some time, awaiting loading.

He said for this service, the company had engaged three temporary auxiliaries.

He said through the intervention of the Disaster Management Response Centre, the screening point had relocated to Sowa Township by fire department, as of April,” he said, but was later returned to BOTASH in May, after consultation between BOTASH and the COVID-19 task team.

He however said due to shortage of resources and manpower at Sowa Clinic facilities, Botswana Police was tasked to set up road blocks at the entrance of Sowa Town to monitor movement of trucks and to ensure that they did not park at wrong places.

Mr Nkarabang revealed that to date, a total of 11 169 trucks had been screened. “At the moment, the township has screened 216 clients coming from the red zones and swabbed 68, who were having flu-like symptoms; registered four COVID-19 positive.

He recommended that preventative measures for COVID-19 should be strengthened and that people should avoid unnecessary movements, expecially to COVID-19 red zones.

On the other hand, Mr Nkarabang said the clinic had appealed to the centre to advocate for a testing machine and continue with enforcing the law to ensure that COVID-19 regulations were followed.

He urged the task team to continue with daily patrols and sporadic checks in the township to ensure that the community was complying with COVID-19 protocols.

Where necessary, he said, public awareness would be undertaken to remind the public about the COVID-19 regulations, as well as updates on the current situation. ENDs