Health officials in Botswana are targeting the country’s major tourist attractions as community testing for COVID-19 begins on Monday April 20.
According to the Director of Health Services, Dr Malaki Tshipayagae, the community testing initiative will also be conducted in the capital Gaborone.
Other areas to be covered by the exercise include Francistown, Ghanzi, Kasane and Maun which are tourist destinations in the north of the country.
“In an effort to respond to the current COVID-19 pandemic, the National Strategy Office in collaboration with University of Botswana, Statistics Botswana, Botswana Harvard Partnership, ACHAP and MoHW will be conducting community testing for COVID-19 in those districts,” read a statement from Tshipayagae’s ministry.
Thus far, Botswana has collected 3,829 specimens, tested 3,602, and found 15 to have tested positive for the coronavirus.
It has registered just one death from COVID-19 so far.
Botswana’s tourism sector which is its second revenue earner has been hard hit by the global pandemic.
Most of the confirmed COVID-19 cases were imported from European countries.
KO/as/APA