Day: December 4, 2021

GABORONE, BOTSWANA — Botswana’s reported COVID-19 cases have declined despite the detection of the highly transmissible omicron variant of coronavirus. Botswana was one of the first two countries in the world, along South Africa to report cases of the Omicron variant.

While COVID-19 cases are surging in neighboring South Africa, Botswana has reported a decrease.

Last week, Botswana reported 19 cases of the new omicron variant after it was first detected in four diplomats visiting the southern African country.

But COVID-19 Task Force scientific advisor Mogomotsi Matshaba says the country’s overall figures remain low, with only 27 cases recorded between Monday and Thursday.

"The new number of active cases has decrease to 431, a positive development that we encourage all of you to continue to work together so that it remains low," Matshaba said. "The whole country remains green in terms of the COVID zones meaning the disease activity is relatively low, but it doesn’t mean there is no disease.”

Matshaba says the number of those infected with the new omicron variant is at 24, with all displaying mild symptoms and not requiring hospitalization.

He says the low number of cases despite the presence of a highly transmittable variant could be due to various factors.

He says, there could be a number of reasons for this. It could be vaccination or it could be the public education about the pandemic, Matshaba says. But, he warns the situation can change any moment.

Botswana is one of the few African countries to achieve the World Health Organization vaccination target of inoculating 10 percent of its population by the end of September.

At least 21.6 percent of its more than two million people are fully vaccinated, while nearly one million have received the first dose.

Due to the lower caseload, Botswana has decided against imposing stricter limits, unlike neighboring Zimbabwe.

Botswana’s president, Mokgweetsi Masisi, in an address to the nation, says despite the emergence of omicron, the situation remains stable.

"To date, all our key indicators remain stable," Masisi said. "This is comforting although it still does not warrant any complacency on our part in terms of behavior and other attitudinal patterns towards this dreadful disease. We are actively monitoring the evolving situation in view of the new variant of concern."

Masisi says it is unfortunate the country is paying the price for detecting and reporting the new variant to the world.

"It defeats the spirit of multilateral cooperation in dealing with this global pandemic," Masisi said. "The decision to ban our citizens from travelling to certain countries was hastily made and is not only unfair but it is also unjustified. The harshness of the decision has the effect of shaking our belief in the sincerity of declared friendship and commitment to equality and economic prosperity for us."

The outbreak of the omicron variant has seen most countries place travel bans particularly on southern African countries.

The variant has since been reported in countries across the globe.

Source: Voice of America

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA — South Korea again broke its daily records for coronavirus infections and deaths and confirmed three more cases of the new omicron variant as officials scramble to tighten social distancing and border controls.

The 5,352 new cases reported by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency on Saturday marked the third time this week the daily tally exceeded 5,000. The country's death toll was at 3,809 after a record 70 virus patients died in the past 24 hours, while the 752 patients in serious or critical conditions were also an all-time high.

As the delta-driven surge threatens to overwhelm hospital systems, there is also concern about the local spread of the omicron variant, which is seen as potentially more infectious than previous strains of the virus.

The country's omicron caseload is now at nine after KDCA confirmed three more cases.

The new cases include the wife, mother-in-law and a friend of a man who caught omicron from a couple he drove home from the airport after they arrived from Nigeria on Nov. 24. The couple's teenage child and two other women who also traveled to Nigeria have also been infected with omicron.

Officials say the number of omicron cases could rise as some of the patients had attended a church gathering involving hundreds of people on Nov. 28.

While the emergence of omicron has triggered global alarm and pushed governments around the world to tighten their borders, scientists say it remains unclear whether the new variant is more contagious, more likely to evade the protection provided by vaccines or more likely to cause serious illnesses than previous versions of the virus.

Starting next week, private social gatherings of seven or more people will be banned in the densely populated capital Seoul and nearby metropolitan areas, which have been hit hardest by delta and are now running out of intensive care units.

To fend off omicron, South Korea has required all passengers arriving from abroad over the next two weeks to quarantine for at least 10 days, regardless of their nationality or vaccination status. The country has banned short-term foreign travelers arriving from nine African nations, including South Africa and Nigeria.

Source: Voice of America

GABORONE, BOTSWANA — World health experts are still searching the origins of the omicron variant of the coronavirus. But in Botswana, where the variant was first reported, officials say what matters is that it was discovered, not where it came from.

Amid questions over the origins of omicron, a new and highly transmittable variant of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, Botswana says the focus should be on finding solutions to the pandemic.

Botswana and South Africa were the first to report the new variant, which is said to be highly contagious and has spread around the globe.

Initially, omicron was thought to have originated from Botswana, but the southern African country was quick to dismiss the reports.

President Mokgweetsi Masisi, in an interview with CNN Thursday, said the variant was detected in diplomats who visited Botswana but had passed through Europe.

"The diplomats came from a number of countries, their countries of origin, their countries of work station, and they passed through a number of countries to get to Botswana," Masisi said. "Yes, some have been to Europe and some have been elsewhere. It would seem the very creation of this new virus is a result of intervention from a diversity of sources.”

But some scientists, including South African-based Richard Lessells, who was part of the team that discovered the new variant, say it is key to tracing the origins of the variant.

They argue, one key way out of a variant puzzle is to trace genetic origins, which is why it is matters to know where omicron originated.

Trevor Bedford, a computational virologist and professor at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in the U.S. city of Seattle, is also involved in researching omicron’s origins.

He told U.S.-based National Public Radio that identifying the source of the virus would help scientists assess the potential threat of the variant through educated guesses.

For instance, he says, if omicron had been evolving out of sight in a large population of humans over a period of months, it could suggest the variant is less transmissible.

But Botswana Minister of Health Edwin Dikoloti says tracing the variant’s origins will only stigmatize the country where it is traced.

"Where the virus originates from is not important. We are not going to be geo-politicizing this virus," Dikoloti said. "What is important is to applaud our scientists, who have discovered or found this virus to make the world aware of it so that we can act quicker to reduce transmission.”

Dikoloti says Botswana will not disclose the nationalities of the four diplomats and their countries of origin.

President Masisi says Botswana and South Africa are paying the price for the discovery of omicron, after other countries placed travel bans on several African countries following the announcement.

Instead, he says the scientists who discovered and reported the variant should be celebrated.

"I would like to applaud our scientific community for their efforts in monitoring the variant and being the first to sequence the omicron variant of concern and making information available to the international community," Masisi said. "The response by some countries to our detection of the omicron variant is unfortunate as it appears to have caused unnecessary panic amongst the public across the world."

President Masisi describes the ban on mostly visitors from southern Africa as divisive.

"Even if they did not originate in Europe, I make no sense of these travel bans. These travel bans, if I were to be more candid, are nothing but a manifestation of neo-imperialist thinking," Masisi said. "These travel bans, if I can be very direct, are very paternalizing and very divisive, and they undermine our belief systems in multilateralism. They question our confidence in proclaimed addiction to principles of human rights.”

While the new variant is said to be highly infectious, in Botswana, with a population of about 2.4 million people, the infection rate has been rather slow, with only 24 reported cases, all of them with mild symptoms.

While Botswana maintains it is not important to report the place of discovery of the omicron variant, scientists like Bedford and Lessells argue it is critical to find out where it came from in order help fight it.

Source: Voice of America