17 Aug 2020

Authorities in towns and villages along the border have a mammoth task of curbing border jumping especially during this time when the country is fighting the spread of COVID-19. 

As part of efforts to fight the pandemic, Chobe district has embarked on a number of initiatives which include intervention at points of entry, surveillance, case management, health education, logistics and isolations. 

Chobe District Health Management Team (DHMT) coordinator, Dr Botshelo Kgwaadira explained in an interview with BOPA,  that interventions at the points of entry included opening the borders only for returning citizens, residents and transporters of essential goods. 

Dr Kgwaadira said returning residents and citizens were screened for fever and other COVID-19 symptoms and quarantined for 14 days of which on the tenth day they were tested while transporters of essential services were swabbed on arrival and if the results were negative they were allowed entry whilepositive cases were repatriated. 

He said while waiting for their results which has a turnaround time of 24hrs, the essential services transporters were kept at holding areas at Kazungula Weighbridge and Pandamatenga-Kwa Nokeng. 

Dr Kgwaadira explained that the two areas had a total holding capacity for 80 trucks. 

He said Chobe had capacity to conduct 450 tests per day but currently did around 100 tests per day. 

He elaborated that to date over 6 000 tests had been done in the district and 109 came out positive and had since been repatriated. 

As for the returning residents and citizens from different parts of the world, he said 91 were currently under quarantine in the different hospitality facilities in Kasane and that since the exercise started a total of 526 had been quarantined and all tested negative for the virus. 

Concerning surveillance, the DHMT coordinator said this was applicable to people from the community with flu-like symptoms adding that such patients were kept on self-isolation and monitored. 

He said currently there were two people on isolation and since the outbreak of the pandemic more than 100 went on self-isolation but none tested positive. 

For case management he said there was trained personnel who also conducted tests on the quarantined people. 

Dr Kgwaadira noted that the DHMT continuously shared information on COVID-19 with the community through the use of Information, Education and Communication (IEC) material at all convenient places such as businesses and government facilities. 

He said from time to time a vehicle with a public address system went around the villages to sensitise the community about the disease. 

As part of sensitisation, he said all village leadership were briefed on the disease and were encouraged to share information with the villagers and so far all the villages in Chobe were covered. 

He further said there was an ambulance dedicated to COVID-19 and four rooms that were used for isolation. Dr Kgwaadira however said another 20-bed facility had been earmarked for isolation purposes. 

Dr Kgwaadira said some of the challenges in the COVID- 19 management were illegal immigrants, people failing to observe social distancing, failure to use masks and failure to share quarantine costs by some of the quarantined returning residents and citizens. 

He applauded the Botswana Police Services in Chobe for their efforts in enforcing compliance with COVID-19 protocols. 

On the failure to pay the 50 per cent of the quarantine costs, which is P3 500, Dr Kgwaadira said they usually engaged the social workers to assess if indeed the person could not afford the P3 500 and where it was established to be true, government paid 100 per cent of the costs. 

For her part, the district COVID-19 committee chairperson, Ms Sekgabo Makgosa noted that while the district had not recorded any local cases, people should not be complacent. 

She said Chobe was one of the high risk areas as it had three borders that were still operational for returning citizens and residents and essential goods transporters. 

Ms Makgosa said people should complement government efforts in the fight against COVID-19, noting that the disease was not the responsibility of the government and the Presidential Task team alone. 

Ms Makgosa said the disease did not only impact negatively on the government’s coffers but also on the individuals therefore everybody should play a role in the fight. 

An Information Technology officer at the office of the district commissioner, Mr Teko Oabile said there was still a challenge of some government departments failing to adopt the use of the Be-Safe application. 

Mr Oabile said the use of Be-Safe App minimised the risk of the spread of the disease as people did not share pens and screening registers. 

He said the Be-Safe App was piloted in the Chobe district and as a result all facilities should have adopted it. 

Mr Oabile further said with the use of the App people would be sure that their details were safe unlike when they write them on the registers. 

Mr Oabile observed that some handwritings on the registers  were not legible something that he said could hamper contact tracing should there be a case hence the Be-Safe was the best option. 

Kgosi Lesoma Lesoma of Lesoma decried the threat of COVID-19 in his village as the village experienced house break-ins with most perpetrators being  people suspected to be from the neighbouring countries. 

In Pandamatenga, Kgosi David Mafikizolo was confident that everybody in the village was aware of COVID-19 as in most cases people adhered to protocols. 

Although Kgosi Mafikizolo said he was not aware of any illegal immigrants’ cases, he suspected immigrants continued to cross into the village as there were incidents of house breakings. 

He raised a concern about the number of locals from different parts of Botswana who came to work in the farms explaining that they may pose a risk to his village as some of them were from areas where the disease was detected. 

Kgosi Mafikizolo suggested that screening should be done at filling stations bus stops as it was where most of those who came to look for jobs in the farms disembarked. 

He noted that currently there were over 1 000 people from other parts of the country working in the farms and before transiting to their areas of work they usual camped in some homes in the village. 

Officer Commanding Police District number 7, Senior Superintendent Thari Senwelo told BOPA that since the outbreak of COVID-19 in March to date, a total of 66 cases of entering Botswana through ungazetted points were registered in his area of jurisdiction. 

His area of jurisdiction encompasses Pandamatenga, Kazungula, Kasane, airport and Kachikau. 

However airport did not record any cases while Pandamatenga recorded six, Kazungula 43, Kasane 13 and Kachikau four cases each. Ends