Community testing of 22,000 people starts this weekend
Mbongeni Mguni | Thursday April 16, 2020 21:15
The results of the sample testing are expected to inform health authorities on whether to relax or intensify the ongoing lockdown. The exercise is being done strategically at the halfway point of the lockdown and is expected to take between eight and 10 days, although it could go up to a week longer due to logistical issues at household level.
Should the ministry meet its target, the 22,000 tests will make Botswana the country with the fourth highest tests done in Africa, after South Africa, Ghana and Egypt. In terms of tests done per one million citizens, Botswana is already sixth in Africa and will jump to number one should the target be met.
The 3,602 tests done locally so far have focussed on at-risk people such as those returning from infected countries and those who have been in contact with recent travellers. As at 9am this morning, 15 of those tests had been positive, with results from a further 227 tests still awaited.
Training for the health workers who will carry out the testing was ongoing this week, ahead of the weekend start.
Coordinator of the COVID-19 Task Force, Dr Kereng Masupu told MmegiOnline the number of people tested per district would depend on the population sizes of those districts. While most of those being tested would be picked at random, in specific cases certain criteria will be used to select participants. Volunteering is not required as the testing seeks random participants.
“We are looking at a representative sample, so those with higher populations will have highest tests,” he said.
“The way it works is that a number of teams will go out and as we sample, we send them for testing, so that everyday there will be samples arriving there.”
Masupu said the results of the exercise would be among determining factors on the decisions to be taken when the lockdown ends on April 30. He said it was therefore important that Batswana stay where they are and minimise movement so that the existence of any infections is quickly traced within the different communities across the country.
“Depending on what we get out of this particular round, it will influence what then happens to the lockdown.
“That’s why we say people should not move within communities even as we speak, because we are looking for the agent.
“Wherever it is, it should stay there until we arrive, test, get the results and know how to act.”
He continued: “This is what it means. We have a lockdown now but we give people permits to go to shops and others. So it’s a lockdown with some kind of movement happening.
“However, under the exercise, if we find an agent there, it will become a real lockdown. Nothing moves until we find which house.”
Dr Masupu clarified that while the 22,000 participants would be chosen at random, there would be others who are “purposively sampled,” over and above the main group. The ministry has set certain criteria for which it will enrol people in the purposeful sample, he said.
He stressed that Batswana should remain in their homes and appreciate that while permits exist, the logic behind the lockdown is to discourage movement and thus contain the spread of the pandemic.