The Minister of Presidential Affairs and Public Administration- Honourable Kabo Morwaeng has indicated that the government is not sorry for the negative effects felt due to sudden movement restrictions during Easter holidays.
Morwaeng, who is also the Member of Parliament for Molepolole South, entailed that his government is not apologetic and it would do it again if given a chance.
“Lessons learnt from the past, and as recently stated by His Excellency the President, is that movement during the festive season was the main factor for the increased COVID-19 cases across the country. Furthermore, informing the nation about the intended restrictions resulted in mass movement of people from heavily affected zones to those less affected. This has certainly worked against our disease control efforts. We witnessed long queues with no observation of the COVID 19 health protocols at checkpoints. This behaviour has resulted in astronomical increase in cases post holidays, a situation we have not been able to reverse to date.” Morwaeng underscored.
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Though it was indicated that essential service permits will not be affected, business owners were frustrated as they had to manually apply for movement permits. Most businesses indicated that the were greatly inconvenienced by these and made hige loses.
Morwaeng underscored that by the end of December 2020, sixty-six (66) deaths over a period of ten (10) months were recorded. Subsequent to that, hundred and eight (108) deaths, One hundred and ninety-nine (199) and Two hundred and forty-six (246) were registered in January, February and March 2021, respectively.
Furthermore, Minister Morwaeng says they have also learnt that for every two hundred and fifty (250) to three hundred (300) infections, (1) Motswana losses his/her life. “The key to controlling this pandemic depends heavily on controlling movement of people.” Morwaeng asserted.
Meanwhile, the reports have previously confirmed that the 50.1 variant which is more contagious than the normal virus is dominant in Botswana positive cases. The variant was confirmed to be attributable to about eighty percent (80%) of the cases. Now it is not clear if more new infections and deaths are attributable to festive season holidays movement or it is because of the variant.
