The Botswana government on Friday reinstated lockdown in the capital city, Gaborone following an increase in the number of Covid-19 cases, reported Reuters. The country ended a 48-day national coronavirus lockdown late last month, allowing businesses and schools to reopen under controls.
The health officials announced that the city will go under lockdown from midnight on Friday until further notice after an earlier announcement of 12 new cases.
In a televised statement, Malaki Tshipayagae, Botswana’s director of health services, said four new imported cases have been reported at the country’s border posts and eight at a private hospital in Gaborone, bringing cumulative cases to 60 since the first case was reported in March.
“We are still to determine whether the hospital cases are local transmissions,” Tshipayagae said. “From midnight today the greater Gaborone area will revert to extreme social distancing until further notice, where only essential services will be allowed to operate.”
He said the health officials will begin contact tracing and testing of people who visited affected areas immediately and extreme social distancing will be observed in the capital city and its immediate surroundings. A local private hospital and a bank have been identified and closed as areas where positive individuals had passed through.
Notably, before the new cases were reported, Botswana only had one active case of the coronavirus. It has recorded only one coronavirus death so far. The government had imposed a countrywide lockdown from beginning of April until end of May and only opened up fully at the beginning of June.
Botswana has in recent weeks reported only imported cases, mostly from truck drivers.
Kereng Masupu, coordinator of the presidential task force for Covid-19, said they will soon begin investigation to find what led to the surge in locally transmitted cases and to find out if there has been a lapse in the testing process or there is a new hot spot in the city.
