Covid-19: Batswana Still Visit High-Risk Countries
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Monday March 23, 2020 18:18
The Monitor has been reliably informed that some business people, who sell clothes and hairpieces in particular, took a trip as if going to South Africa before taking another flight out to a high-risk destination, China, to buy stock for their businesses.
Upon returning, they would then spend a few days in South Africa before reaching home.
According to a reliable source, some of them were last Thursday taken in by the Directorate of Intelligence and Security upon their arrival at the airport.
“Their passports indeed have shown that they had visited those countries. The perpetrators were banned from travelling until further notice, they were screened and quarantined at their homes for 14 days,” the source said.
The Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr Lemogang Kwape confirmed that they had realised some Batswana do sneak out to the affected countries and action will be taken against anyone who is caught doing that.
“I advise some of these Batswana to desist from travelling to these countries and adhere to standards of health. We want everyone to comply with instructions from the health ministry in order to reduce the risk of coronavirus pandemic,” Kwape said.
He urged Batswana to reduce unnecessary travel to the affected countries.
Some of the countries that Batswana are restricted from travelling to and their people prohibited from entering Botswana include Austria, Belgium, China, Denmark, United Kingdom, South Korea, France, Japan, Iran, United States of America, Germany, Italy Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and India.
The Monitor’s efforts to establish how some of these grounded travellers got visas from the Chinese Embassy, were unsuccessful.