WALVIS BAY – Transport companies or truck owners operating on cross-border routes will no longer be allowed to quarantine their drivers at truck ports, health minister Dr Kalumbi Shangula announced yesterday. 

The truck drivers will be surrendered to the health ministry, who will quarantine them at accredited facilities. The new directive follows various reports that three truck drivers snuck out of quarantine facilities in Windhoek and Walvis Bay to visit friends and relatives. One of the drivers tested positive for Covid-19 and is currently in isolation at a state facility. 

Meanwhile, Erongo governor Neville Andre yesterday told journalists the security cluster in the region is now tasked to enforce post-lockdown regulations, such as limiting local movement, wearing of masks in public, limiting the number of people at gatherings, as well as increasing surveillance to get information of whom the truck drivers were in contact with. 

The task force will resume their patrols, while all trucks will have to enter the town via the Dune 7 road. They will also be escorted to Namport for offloading purposes. “We are calling on all companies in Namibia to use their surveillance systems to detect suspected positive truckers who visited their business premises and follow the example of Standard Bank to fumigate and put their workers, who might have come into contact with the suspected truck drivers, in isolation. I am particularly making reference to those places the suspected truckers visited en route to Walvis Bay,” Andre said. 
– edeklerk@nepc.com.na