Botswana has recorded 14 deaths related to the loss of lives of people who had received the Covid-19 jab since the vaccination rollout began late last March.
The Telegraph has learnt that only one autopsy has already been conducted thus far.
Responding to this publication queries, the Ministry of Health and Wellness spokesperson Christopher Nyanga confirmed that so far there are about 14 people countrywide who died after receiving the jab.
“So far 14 people have been recorded to have died having had received the Covid-19 vaccine. This signifies 0.01% of the total adults vaccinated,” said Nyanga.
He explained that these fatalities however, cannot as of now be attributed to the vaccine itself as all the deceased had other underlying conditions.
Nyanga also explained that medical investigations to draw causality and conclusively determine the cause of death are not yet complete.
When asked which zone was mostly affected by such deaths, Nyanga replied, thus “there is no pattern to the reported deaths as they have occurred as single events across the country.”
For his part, the coordinator of District Health Management Team (DHMT) in greater Francistown, Dr Ivan Kgetse said DNMT is investigating about three deaths around greater Francistown which occurred after they had received Covid-19 jab.
“It is true that we are investigating three incidents in which three elders died after they allegedly received COVID-19 vaccine on different occasions and places,” he said.
Kgetse explained that the latest incident occurred last week Tuesday at Tonota in which a 65 old man allegedly died after receiving the jab.
“At the moment we are still discussing with the family to establish the cause of death therefore I am not quite sure when the discussion with said family will be concluded,” he told Sunday Standard.
He said this a very “sensitive matter and complex” and such medical investigations normally takes time to be completed.
“Normally an autopsy is one of the first thing to be carried out as it mostly assists in establishing the cause of death but in these particular reported cases, only one family agreed for the autopsy to be conducted,” he revealed.
He added that on the second incident, the family decided not to conduct an autopsy while on the third case which is still fresh, the family has not decided whether such medical procedure should be conducted or not.
“Families are given enough space to decide for themselves and as medical officials we follow what the family wants and we never put them under pressure,” he said.
Kgetse further said the government can never give its citizens own dangerous vaccines in order to kill its own citizens.
“It should be noted that in most causes those who die normally have underlying health conditions,” he said.
Contacted for comment headman of Tonota Bokamoso Radipitse said, “I have been officially informed about the unfortunate incident by the local health official.”
He said the health official told him that the matter will be fully investigated to establish what could have led to the death of the elder who is a resident of Tonota.
He admitted that though the unfortunate incident left a void in Tonota, that did not deter the residents to receive vaccinations adding that most of the elderly have since received the jab.
“I would like to urge the residents of Tonota not to rush into conclusion as that might discourage them from receive the jab following this unfortunate incident but rather go out in large numbers to receive the jab,” he said.
Botswana kicked off its Covid-19 vaccination program late last month and elderly citizen were given priority to receive the jab. Botswana received a donation of 30,000 doses of the CoviShield vaccine from India earlier this month. The country also received about 24 000 doses that the government bought the COVAX facility, an international COVID-19 vaccine campaign co-led by the World Health Organization and its partners.
