African News Agency (ANA)
Botswana’s President Mokgweetsi Masisi, and Vice President Slumber Tsogwane were released from home quarantine on Thursday, the president’s office said.
Spokesperson Batlhalefi Leagajang said this follows the release of their coronavirus (Covid-19) test results which came out negative on Wednesday.
Members of parliament were placed under quarantine for 14 days on 9 April after a nurse who conducted screening at parliament a day earlier tested positive for Covid-19.
This was for the second time that Masisi was placed in isolation, he was placed in quarantine on 21 March, soon after returning from Namibia for the inauguration of Namibian President Hage Geingob.
Coordinator of Covid-19 Presidential Task Force Dr Kereng Masupu said the results of all the people who attended the special parliamentary session were negative for the coronavirus.
Politicians were at that time debating President Mokgweetsi Masisi’s request that the state of emergency intended to cut the spread of coronavirus should last for six months.
Botswana has so far tested 5,023 people for the coronavirus and 22 have tested positive, while one person has died.
The country is now on a six months state of emergency and movement is restricted.
Meanwhile Eswatini Health Minister Lizzie Nkosi said the country recorded four new coronavirus cases on Thursday, taking its tally to 36 with one death and 10 recoveries.
The relaxed coronavirus lockdown in Eswatini would be strengthened from Friday.
Prime minister Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini said this was followed by the growing cases of coronavirus.
“Following the pronouncement of a relaxed partial lockdown last week to balance the scales between protecting the lives of Emaswati and ensuring access to the basic necessities of life, new information has emerged showing that positive cases have almost doubled.
“Over the week of the extended partial lockdown, we have observed with concern that complacency among the populace is creeping in and an increasing number of people around the country are now casual and lack vigilance in preventing the transmission of the virus,” he said.
The coronavirus officially known as Covid-19 was first recorded in Wuhan, the capital of China’s Hubei province in December of 2019 and spread rapidly to other parts of the world.
So far there are more than 2.6 million confirmed cases worldwide, over 186,000 death and just over 731,000 recoveries.
