Gaborone — The astronomical increase in the number of COVID-19 cases in the first three months of 2021 left the state with no option but to severely restrict movement of people from highly affected zones during the Easter Holidays, Minister for Presidential Affairs, Governance and Public Administration, Mr Kabo Morwaeng has said.
Speaking in Parliament yesterday, he said the intention was to avert repetition of the festive season scenario whereby the number of COVID-19 positive cases escalated in different parts of the country following a lot of interzonal movement during the holidays.
Mr Morwaeng explained that by the end of December 2020, Botswana had registered 66 deaths over a 10 month period but subsequent to that, 108, 199 and 246 deaths were recorded in January, February and March respectively.
"This represents an escalation from 66 cumulative deaths in December 2020 to over 600 in three-months' time," he said adding the most affected zones were Greater Gaborone, Greater Palapye and Greater Selebi Phikwe.
The minister said 42 422 people travelled from the less COVID-19 burdened zones to the most affected zones during the period in question.
"Their entry into the most affected zones no doubt exposed them to the risk of contracting COVID 19," he said.
He said the inter-zonal restrictions imposed just before the Easter Holidays and the week following specifically targeted the Greater Gaborone, Greater Palapye and Greater Selebi Phikwe.
It was important for government to restrict movement of people during the Easter holidays as a way of curbing the spread of COVID-19, he stated.
Mr Morwaeng said at the current infection rate, 1 000 to 3 000 people were potentially infected with COVID-19 as the result of inter-zonal movements therefore bold measures had to be undertaken in order to control the spread of the pandemic and save lives.
"We have also learnt that for 250 to 300 infections, we lost one Motswana," he said.
Mr Morwaeng said the key to controlling the pandemic depended heavily on controlling movement of people.
The minister disclosed that government had introduced a geolocate system that would help to mitigate breaches and misrepresentations of actual origin of arriving travelers.
Noting that delays in issuing permits had been attributed to the strengthening of the COVID-19 monitoring system, he said since inter-zonal permits were now a requirement, applications would be assessed and approved on the basis of zonal disease burden.
Minister Morwaeng said by March 30, 119 000 permits had already been issued through the automatic online system for the holiday period because people had applied in advance.
He said government had since introduced a new permit system which would keep active permits at 30 000 at one time.
"Application for a movement permit will therefore not result with automatic approval as it had been the case," he said.
He explained that a public notice to that effect was shared widely on all government social media platforms with a clear message that essential services would not be affected.
"During this transition, manual permits were issued and continue to be issued for essential services and emergencies such as funerals and medical travel requests," he said.
The minister said the current movement restriction intervention reduced the number of active permits during the Easter Holiday period by about 79 per cent.
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He said Maun zone daily new infection of seven-day movement average was at a peak of 22 on February 2 and had dropped to four by March 26.
"It is therefore absolutely imperative to preserve this trend, or even improve," he said.
He said the COVID-19 presidential task team continued to work with the Ministry of Health and Wellness to introduce appropriate disease control measures aimed at reducing inter-zonal importation of the disease.
"As previously planned and in accordance with the statutory requirements, testing of individuals moving from high burden areas may be enforced to contain the disease and save lives," he said.
<i>Source : BOPA</i>
