22 Feb 2022

Batswana have been urged to continue taking vaccines and adhering to health protocols as the fight against COVID-19 was not yet over.

Giving a weekly update on Monday, presidential COVID-19 task team scientific advisor, Dr Mogomotsi Matshaba said although the disease burden  had  lessened, it still remained a challenge.

 People should not loosen their protective measures, he stated. 

Dr Matshaba said the fact that Botswana was about to exit the COVID-19 fourth wave did not mean it was over warning that  lives continued to be lost.

He reported six mortalities during a three-day period which he described as a huge number.

Dr Matshaba said the age range of the  dead was 60-90 years which was unlike in previous weeks when it was young people who lost their lives.

New infections were recorded daily, people continued to be hospitalised with 14 patients admitted at Sir Ketumile Hospital, seven in intensive care, he said.

“In a period of three days from February 15-17, we recorded 596 COVID-19 new positive infections and that translates 200 plus or less cases per day,” said Dr Matshaba stating that was a high number.

He said another concern was the number of active cases that  remained high at 3 152.

“Although the number has fluctuated between low and high, we continue to see a number of transmissions of COVID-19,” Dr Matshaba said.

He said the number of recoveries stood at 256 886 but “cognizant that other people have long COVID-19.”

Dr Matshaba encouraged people with long COVID-19 symptoms to visit health care facilities because  they  could be having underlying conditions.

In terms of total confirmed infections since the eruption of COVID-19, Dr Matshaba said Botswana had so far registered 262 652 cases.

He said the number of those who had received first jab was over 1.4million  while over 1.1 million had taken two jabs and 134 303 got booster shots. 

Meanwhile Dr Matshaba said COVID-19 vaccines were in abundance countrywide. ends