Botswana President Mokgweetsi Masisi has granted a presidential pardon to 149 convicted prisoners as part of measures to contain the spread of coronavirus, prison officials announced on Thursday.
Botswana Prisons spokesperson Warona Ramolefhe said the prisoners were released on Wednesday as Masisi moved to decongest prisons.
Ramolefhe spoke as Health Minister Lemogang Kwape also announced plans to roll out community testing for the Coronavirus across the country.
Addressing the nation on national television, Kwape said the move was necessitated by the fact that so far Botswana has registered two local transmission cases of COVID-19, the acute respiratory disease caused by the virus.
Botswana has so far recorded 15 cases of coronavirus.
KO/jn/APA