President Hage Geingob has extended by 16 days measures imposed by his government to contain Namibia’s surging COVID-19 pandemic.
In an address to the nation on Thursday, Geingob said the decision to extend the lockdown measures was arrived at because the country had crossed two significant milestones over the past 14 days.
“We have exceeded 100,000 cumulative cases and over 2,000 deaths have been recorded due to COVID-19 and related illness,” Geingob said.
He revealed that a cumulative total of 108,785 Namibians had contracted COVID-19 as of July 14.
Some 18,148 new cases have been recorded over the past two weeks, with Khomas region accounting for the highest share of 20 percent of new infections in the country. Khomas is the region in which the capital Windhoek is located.
“The Cabinet has assessed the impact of the current measures and has resolved, based on key indicators, to maintain and extend the current Public Health Regulations, from midnight tonight, Thursday 15 July 2021, for a period of sixteen (16) days until 31 July 2021,” Geingob said.
The existing measures include restrictions on the exit and entry into the Windhoek-Okahandja-Rehoboth Local Authority Area, limiting the number of people allowed at public gatherings to a maximum of 10 persons per event and a night curfew that runs from 9pm (1900 GMT) to 4am daily.
JN/APA