In six weeks, Botswana has taken a nose-dive from being one of the safest travel destinations in the world to being condemned to the blacklist of high – risk countries as the fallout of the festive season Covid-19 super spreader event takes its toll.
The United Kingdom this week slapped Botswana with a travel ban, hardly two months after placing the Southern African country on its safe travel corridor list.
Mid last month, the UK government added Botswana and Saudi Arabia to its safe travel corridor list, meaning travellers from Botswana to the UK would not be required to self isolate.
The UK has however removed Botswana from its safe travel corridor list and added the country along with its Southern African neighbors to its travel ban list due to the new mutant strain of the coronavirus that was reported in South Africa late last year.
All travellers who came from or transited through Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Eswatini, Zambia, Malawi, Lesotho, Mozambique, Angola, the Seychelles, and Mauritius are now prohibited from entering the United Kingdom.
Statistics further revealed that Botswana’s Covid-19 has become deadlier. The risk of dying from COVID-19 in Botswana has gone up by 20% over the past six weeks. The country’s Covid-19 Case Fatality Ration (CFR) has increased from 0.4% to 0.5% between December and January, which means Batswana who are infected with the virus are 20% more likely to die from the disease compared to before the festive season.
The CFR is an index used to measure the mortality risk of COVID-19 – the likelihood that someone who catches the disease will die from it.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) uses among other indicators, the CFR which is the proportion of individuals diagnosed with a disease who die from that disease and is therefore a measure of severity among detected cases. The CFR is the number of deaths from the disease divided by the number of confirmed cases and multiplied by 100.
January 2021 is already the deadliest month since Botswana recorded its first case in March 2020. The country has reached triple figures in the number of recorded COVID-19 deaths, with January 2021 accounting for at least 60 percent of all Botswana deaths.
According to the latest update from the COVID-19 National Task Force as at January 18, the death toll stood at 105, representing 60 more deaths than the 45 recorded on January 1st, 2021.
The Task Force have attributed the alarming rise in cases to the festive holidays. Deputy Coordinator of the Task Force Professor Mosepele Mosepele has demonstrated how the number of infections has risen with every national holiday starting from President Holidays in 2020, followed by Independence holiday, and the Christmas holidays.
December has proved to be the super spreader, as indicated by the recent record-breaking numbers. Failure to abide by the covid-19 protocols remains the major contributor to the rapid spread in infections. Mosepele has also attributed the spread to failure to isolate by those with suspected symptoms or delayed isolation by suspected contacts. The Task Force reported 17 new COVID-19 deaths from the three days between January 16 and 19, 2021. There were 1024 new infections recorded in the three days representing another new high of at least 300 infections per day.
The rate of daily infections has especially been on a steady rise since mid-2020, from 100 cases per day in July, September, October, rising to over 200 in November and December.
While most of the positive cases remain those under the age of 50, the number of fatalities is in complete contrast.
Professor Mosepele says at least 82 percent of COVID-19 related deaths are those over the vulnerable age of 50. “This is why it is crucial for the young people to abide by the protocols to avoid infecting their parents, who are most vulnerable.”
While the government introduced measures such as registration of visitors at public places in 2020 to assist in contact tracing, the practice now seems futile in the face of alarming cases of local infections. Ports of entry are no longer the biggest threat, representing only five percent of recorded cases.
The government introduced more regulations at the height of the festive season that included a 7PM to 4AM curfew to assist contain the spread of the virus and reduce possible fatalities.
The government extended the curfew earlier this month in response to the latest surge in positive cases.
“…with evidence submitted to His Excellency the President by the director of Health Services that the risks posed by COVID-19 have increased in Botswana. The restrictions or curfew will apply from 8PM to 4AM daily. Essential service workers will be required to carry permits to travel during periods where movement is restricted,” Minister of Health Dr. Edwin Dikoloti announced earlier this month.
He also announced adjusted lockdown regulations.
“His Excellency, President Dr. Mokgweetsi Eric Keabetswe Masisi, has approved the extension of the travel restrictions, imposed under the emergency powers regulation from the fourth of January, to the 31st of January 2021. The extension is in accordance with regulation 5 (1 and 4) of emergency powers COVID-19 regulations of 2020.”
No determination has yet been made regarding the government’s budget for vaccine.
“The costs of procuring the vaccine were unanticipated and were not budgeted for in 2020/21 budget. There is, now, an established need, and the ministry has since submitted a request for the required resources,” the Ministry of Health said in December.
“Funds they had initially mobilized, both under the ministry and the COVID-19 pandemic relief fund to address the effects of the pandemic are getting depleted hence the need to make an initial budgetary provision,” Minister of Finance Dr Thapelo Matsheka had told the 2020 winter session of Parliament.
In his State of the Nation Address recently President Mokgweetsi Masisi alluded to Botswana being party to a coalition aimed at negotiating affordable and speedy access for vaccine to ensure that people in all corners of the world will get access to COVID-19 vaccines regardless of their economic standing.
The coalition, COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access Facility (COVAX Facility), was launched in April 2020 by the World Health Organization to accelerate the development and manufacturing of COVID-19 vaccines, and to guarantee fair and equitable access for every country in the world.
