Up until yesterday, Monday, 30th of March, Botswana was one of the countries on the African continent without a confirmed case of the COVID-19 virus that is fast spreading its wings across the world.
Yesterday, the health minister of Botswana, Dr Lemogang Kwape said in a televised announcement that Botswana has confirmed its first case of the COVID-19 virus. Three people in the country have been confirmed to be infected with the virus.
The three confirmed cases have been reported as imported cases. Two of the infected patients just returned from Thailand and the third just returned from the United Kingdom.
The Botswana government announced on social media that 1901 people have been placed under quarantine. Tests have been conducted on the individuals under quarantine, 90 of which have returned negative of the virus while the remaining remains pending.
Last week, the Botswana government imposed a law forcing people returning from other countries to submit to a 14-day quarantine and were only allowed to leave after they’ve been tested negative for the virus at the end of the 14 days quarantine.
After a trip to Namibia, the president of Botswana, President Mokgweetsi. E. K. Masisi also submitted himself to a 14-day quarantine. The Botswana government has announced a prevention and containment strategy to help battle the COVID-19 virus. Part of the strategy includes the ban on the sales of all alcoholic beverages in the country for the next 30 days.
Meanwhile, in Burkina Faso, hospitals and other health care centres are closing down even as the number of COVID 19 virus cases are increasing. The increase in violence in the country has significantly weakened the health care system. The constant jihadists attacks on the civilians have caused many people to flee from their homes and has caused over 135 health centres to shut down across the country.
With over 222 confirmed cases of the COVID-19 virus from functioning health care centre’s and about 12 recorded deaths, specialists are certain that that is not the total number of cases of the COVID-19 virus within the country. Seeing as many people do not have access to proper health care centres and facilities.
Experts say that there are no properly trained medical staff within the parts of Burkina Faso that have not been destroyed by the violence. The reports claim that the hospitals in the country have only a handful of ventilators and are ill-equipped to deal with patients infected with the COVID 19 virus.
