Africa-Press – Lesotho. The recently discovered COVID-19 variant – Delta variant that has attacked the neighboring South Africa (SA) has imposed a great thread to Lesotho. National
COVID-19 Secretariat (NACOSEC) Deputy Chief Executive Operation Support Thabo Ntoi said this at the COVID-19 situation analysis briefing last week. He said
in the Southern African countries, SA has the highest COVID-19 cases, recording over 20 000 positive cases and over 4 000 deaths per day. Ntoi indicated that this week, about 17 972 Basotho came into the country through
border posts and they were screened while last week there were 14 522, he cautioned that this increase is a sign that the country may be experiencing more exposure.
He further said among the 17 972 Basotho that were tested through antigen rapid test, 86 were found positive while last week 37 were found positive. He added that there are 20 Basotho who came in with
certificates indicating positive COVID-19 status while the previous week there were 21. “We should remember that every citizen is allowed to enter their country whether
they are positive or not,” he said. Ntoi emphasized that this is according to the international law that indicates that no citizen should be denied entry
into their country under any circumstances. He said there are measures, however that need to be taken; to take the patient to isolation facilities selected by
the government for a few days for observations. He noted that the infection rate seem to have risen in the past two weeks. He said from March to May this year, the infection rate was 1% whereas these past two
weeks, the infection rate has risen to 5%. He added that this indicates that Lesotho stands in between the line of being in control of the virus and about
to lose control. Ntoi indicated that last week the tests that were run were 5 071 and out of them 285 tests came out positive while the other week there were 202
positive cases, he highlighted that there is a steady increase in the statistics. He said there were 45 recoveries and no deaths recorded. Reflecting on the recently announced surge of cases in Leribe schools, Ntoi said there
also seemed to be an outbreak in industries located in Maputsoe and in different work places across the country. He rounded that judging from the rate
at which the outbreak spread, it is suspected that Lesotho has also been hit by the Delta variant. He informed that and this is a new type of COVID-19
discovered in SA and India. He stated that Lesotho has taken its samples to SA laboratory for testing to justify if really this type of infection in the country is Delta variant.
