Kuzeeko Tjitemisa and
Selma Ikela
President Hage Geingob and his wife Monica Geingos tested negative for Covid-19, after speculation that Geingos, who recently returned from the United Kingdom, might have come into contact with an infected person.
Geingob, at a media briefing at State House yesterday, said he decided to make their test results public and to reassure the nation that the first family is in good health.
“We took a test yesterday. I am very happy to announce yours truly is very safe and healthy and not affected. So, our tests came out negative. You just don’t all go and take the test; it costs money. You only test when it is necessary and when exposed to danger, so to say,” Geingob said.
Updating the nation on the latest on Covid-19 yesterday, health minister Dr Kalumbi Shangula said the country’s cases have now reached 13, saying he had just received notification about an additional two new cases.
He said out of the 13 cases, one is a local transmission between case number eight and case number three, while the remainder are all imported.
“There are reports of confirmed cases missing. I want to give an unequivocal assurance that all the positive cases are accounted for and all are under active monitoring,” Shangula said.
Shangula said the country’s medical professionals are doing a great job to treat patients admitted for confirmed Covid-19 cases.
“The only patient who was admitted in hospital tested negative on two consecutive tests and was discharged on the 31st March,” Shangula said, adding that the patient, a German national, will soon be going to his home country in a healthy state.
He said all other patients are in stable conditions, which is a great achievement for the health officials.
He said, to date, the number of suspected samples taken in the country and submitted to laboratories in Namibian and South Africa for testing stands at 306.
Of these, 150 were submitted to the Namibia Institute of Pathology (NIP), while 156 were submitted to PathCare, which in turn sent the samples to South Africa.
He said, out of all the samples received, 265 have been tested and of these, 111 samples were tested by NIP and 154 by PathCare.
“All the results have been received. As of this morning, 22 samples were collected for testing, three are inconclusive and tests will be repeated, 19 are negative and zero positive,” Shangula said.
The health minister said the team responsible for contact tracing is actively following up with all contacts of all positive and suspected cases to ensure proper and monitoring for symptoms.
Furthermore, Shangula says as part of the ongoing activities, the ministry will enhance testing for Covid-19 in the coming weeks, especially for people with respiratory ailments.
In addition, Shangula said the ministry will undertake active case detection by expanding the scope of work of community health workers.
“We do this in order to determine the extent of community transmission in the //Kharas, Khomas and Erongo regions,” he explained.
Shangula further cautioned the nation to be wary of what he termed “infodemic”, fake news, saying it has become a disturbing trend that fake news is spread with frequent regularity.
“This causes unnecessary public angst and panic. It undermines the sterling work being done by our dedicated health officials who are on the frontline in this battle,” he said.
“Our enemies should be directed at concrete measures to contain the spread of the Coronavirus in our communities,” he said.