18 Jan 2022

  Escalating COVID-19 cases in the country have a bearing on productivity at workplaces, says presidential COVID-19 task team deputy coordinator, Professor Mosepele Mosepele.

“As more people get into isolation, there is a gap that is being felt in workplaces,” he  said during a COVID-19 update on Monday.

He said the number of new cases increased to 1 687 this week from the 877 recorded last week while fatalities also rose by 20 over the same period pushing the COVID-19 death toll from 2 514 to 2 534.

“However, the numbers are lower than those recorded when the Delta variant was dominant in the country,” he said.

Professor Mosepele explained that the country’s high rate of active cases indicated an elevated COVID-19 viral transmission rate which would make it difficult for the numbers to decline.

The more active cases recorded, the more likely the COVID-19 virus would mutate and generate new variants, Prof Mosepele said.

He said the escalating COVID-19 cases had not overloaded the country’s health facilities attributing the low hospitalisation rate to the high level of vaccination currently standing at over 60 per cent of the eligible population.

Comparing the severity of the virus in Botswana to that of other nations, Professor Mosepele said it was considerably lower.

He mentioned delayed uptake of COVID-19 vaccines and an older age group in several countries as contributing causes to the virus’ virulence.

However, Professor Mosepele reminded the public that prevention was still key in reducing the burden and effects of COVID-19 to the health system, economy and livelihoods of Batswana.

He urged parents and guardians to vaccinate children aged 12 to 17 because the Omicron strain was extremely transmissible, especially among children.

Professor Mosepele recommended Pfizer vaccine for the vaccination of children saying research had indicated it had lower side effects.

Explaining that booster doses were integral to the prevention of new COVID-19 cases, he encouraged those due to vaccinate.

“We have won the first fight, which was to decrease the severity and fatality of the COVID-19 virus by vaccinating and now we are fighting against contracting the virus at all by means of the booster shot,” he said.

COVID-19 cases increased by almost 45 000 over the last six weeks, mostly driven by the Omicron variant.

According to a genomic surveillance conducted last December, the variant accounts for more than 98 per cent of COVID-19 infections in the country. Ends