Africa-Press – Lesotho. The recently appointed Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Disaster Management Authority (DMA) under the National COVID-19 Secretariat (NACOSEC), Thabo Khasipe has reaffirmed the Secretariat position on balancing between the health of the nation and the country’s ‘fragile’ economy.
He argued that both health and economy are vital to the country, and warned against laxity over the broader phasing in of both economic and social activities.
This he said at the NACOSEC weekly briefings on the state of the pandemic and the efforts taken to keep the virus at bay. On the much anticipated opening of borders for both Lesotho and South Africa (SA) he said they have
engaged SA’s High Commission to learn what is expected at borders as per that country’s guidelines. He said after detailed exploration, there are four categories of the public who will be
afforded special dispensation to cross to that country. Those are: the sick people who need medical attention in SA, business owners, migrant workers and
the students. They will be allowed to cross to SA subject to having a Coronavirus certificate which was produced within 72 hours period as per the statement by SA’s President.
He said they were told that on Wednesday (yesterday), there will be final meetings by SA consultations which inform today’s borders’ opening. He said upon
returns, these groups will hand over certificates within seven days and will be expected to self-quarantine for 14 days after screening. “We need to keep this
disease within manageable levels,” he said, projecting that there could be a surge of infections as the economy is opening up. The CEO said the National Reference Laboratory (NRL) does not have enough capacity to carry out
the Coronavirus tests. This he said reflecting on the groups that are allowed to cross, saying they will be tested by the NRL and the groups which fall
outside those jurisdictions will have their tests conducted by the private laboratories. He said the lab equipment could take five to six weeks, owing to the global shortage of
equipment. The CEO further said that despite Lesotho not having experienced a wave of infections, it is possible that we could see the rocketing of the infections.
Khasipe said COVID-19 will be one of the programmes of the DMA. He said processes are at an advanced stage to absorb the NACOSEC staff into DMA for six months with an
option of renewal. He said there are four technicians, and they will deploy other eight technicians with the financial assistance of Africa Center for Disease Control (Africa CDC).
The CEO said they want the lab to operate 24 hours. Asked if it is economically viable for Small Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) to self-quarantine for fortnight, he said
there could be devastating health consequences if they could be allowed to continue operations. The Qacha’s Nek border post, Van Rooyen’s Gate, Caledonspoort, Maputsoe Border Post, Maseru Border Posts and Moshoeshoe I International Airport are the only opened points of entry.
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