Africa-Press – Namibia. THE Ministry of Health and Social Services is testing whether Namibia has cases of a new sub-lineage of the Omicron variant.
According to health and social services minister Kalumbi Shangula, the laboratory pillar of the Covid-19 response in Namibia is working closely with the University of Namibia (Unam) for genomic surveillance and testing of samples from school clusters.
“So far, 37 samples have been submitted to Unam for genomic sequencing,” Shangula said at yesterday’s Covid-19 briefing.
This follows Botswana announcing the presence of a new sub lineage of the Omicron variant in four individuals this week.
The new variant has been designated as Omicron BA.4 and BA.5.
“This sub lineage of Omicron has been detected previously in South Africa, Denmark, Scotland and England from 10 January 2022. This variant is still being studied in terms of disease spread and virulence,” Shangula noted.
CASES
Although not out of the woods yet, Namibia’s rate of infection during the expiring observance period remains relatively under control, despite an increase in the average rate of infections.
The expiring observance period started on 16 March, and will lapse on 16 April 2022.
As at 12 April Shangula said Namibia recorded a total of 157 914 Covid-19 cases out of the 992 038 samples tested.
Active cases have increased from 222 during the previous briefing to 296 to date.
“Unfortunately, seven lives were lost since the last briefing, bringing the number of deaths to 4 021 since the beginning of the pandemic,” Shangula said.
However, the health minister added that the number of deaths decreased from 19 deaths reported during the preceding 28 days to seven deaths reported during the period of 25 days of this dispensation, a decline of 63,2%.
Additionally, the number of Covid-19 patients admitted to hospitals decreased to an average of 12 per day as compared to 22 reported during the preceding 25 days.
“Similarly, the number of Covid-19 patients admitted to intensive care units has dropped from four to zero cases by 12 April,” the minister noted.
MEASURES
Meanwhile, the government has maintained that the current public health measures remain unchanged.
The duration of the new public health measures will run from 16 April to 15 May 2022.
The number of attendees at public gatherings remains unchanged at 1 000 people per event, but people are advised to maintain physical distance and depending on the size of the venue, the number of attendees should be adjusted accordingly to comply with the minimum requirement of physical distance .
Measures related to education remain unchanged. However, teachers, other staff members and eligible pupils are advised to get vaccinated and to observe all public health and social measures, especially wearing of masks when in closed settings like a classroom.
President Hage Geingob said Namibia should continue with the drive to increase vaccinations in order to achieve herd immunity.
He, however, said this will not only limit severe illness and hospitalisations, but will also instil confidence in the economy, specifically the tourism and hospitality sectors which have been negatively affected by Covid-19.
“There remains a lot of work ahead, before we can safely say that Covid-19 is behind us,” Geingob said.
As of 10 April, a total of 467 148 people have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine nationally.
Of these, 465 914 are people aged 18 years and above, while 16 210 are children aged 12 to 17 years old.
Collectively, 399 304 (22,4%) eligible individuals are fully vaccinated countrywide.
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