Namibia applauded for Covid-19 containment

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Namibia applauded for Covid-19 containment

8:42 CAT | 21 Apr 2020

Experts say Namibia has done well in containing the further spread of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) compared to other countries world over and on the African continent.

Namibia has 16 confirmed Covid-19 cases of which 10 are active cases.

Speaking at the Covid-19 Communication Centre this afternoon, the Centers for Disease Control country director, Dr Eric Dziuban, said Namibia would soon become an example to other African countries in containing the Covid-19 disease.

“Usually I work on HIV; that is normally what my job is on and Namibia is actually a leader in ending the HIV epidemic. Across Africa, Namibia is a model on how to do that and we see hope now. Namibia can be a leader in fighting this pandemic too,” he said.

He said as a nation, adhering to the set health measures was working and locking down the country has also played a major role in containing the virus.

“These are challenging and confusing times for Namibia and the whole world and it’s affecting everybody. We never thought 2020 was going to look like this, but we are not without hope,” he said.

Dziuban added that Namibia’s curve has been flattening because it has fewer diagnosed cases. He, however, said because of the fewer cases, Namibia is now expanding on its testing.

“We think by doing testing there we might identify new cases so we can know whether the flattening of the curve means it’s the stopping of transmissions. It is easy to miss people who are asymptomatic,” he said.

The World Health Organisation case management focal person, Dr Catherine Muwonge, said Namibia is lucky and seems to have contained the virus with 16 confirmed cases. Despite this, Muwonge warned that the country should not relax, but should remain vigilant in dealing with the virus.

“We have seen that most of these cases are imported cases and right now borders are closed and air travel is restricted. But we know this cannot go on for long and at some point, we will open borders and travel would be allowed thus we don’t know what would happen. My point is that we need to remain vigilant and should not relax and carry on with the public health measures to fight the virus,” she said.

The WHO representative also noted that Namibia does not need to partake in the Covid-19 vaccine clinical trials, as it only has 16 cases compared to other African countries that have started the trials.

“So far, we only have 16 cases and you may know we would require more cases for us to be able to understand the immunity responses. However, whether Namibia is willing to participate in a vaccine trial, the question is beyond me. There are other countries where trials are being held and these are countries that have a large number of cases,” Muwonge noted.

The health ministry’s specialist physician, Dr Ishmael Katjitae, stated that Namibia seems to have used the correct measures to deal with the virus outbreak. He said compared to other countries, Namibia has done well and the lockdown has also contributed to the containment of the Covid-19.

Katjitae said despite the limited number of testing kits the world over and in Namibia, the country has ensured that everyone who leaves a quarantine facility is tested.

“Other countries are not doing that. Namibia is blessed that our government showed a very mature response to this pandemic. The first case was documented on 13 March and president Hage Geingob listened to the advice of the health experts and declared a state of emergency on 17 March. At the same time, the government activated a lot of things and various ministries were working tirelessly to prepare themselves,” he said.

He noted that the defence ministry quickly set up isolation facilities and the finance ministry made funds available immediately.

“Day and night, we spend time working on various strategies to curb this pandemic,” he noted.

By Charmaine Ngatjiheue

Source: The Namibian