Own Correspondent
15th June 2020
It has since emerged that the Gaborone Private HospitalGPH) which has since been reopened was wrongly accused by government of hiding information after taking swabs from clients attending the clinic for medical attention and taking results to their head offices in South Africa for confirmation.
Hospital officials who refused to talk on record given sensitivity of issue appeared miffed at reports they hid results because they allege results were forwarded to government at the earliest opportunity.
It followed suggestions by government officials that senior management had maliciously hid COVID-19 positive results from Botswana Government officials.
”They did not inform us of their results,” said Dr Kereng Masupu, Co-ordinator of the presidential task force on COVID–19.
This is allegedly contrary to Botswana’s Public Health Act of 1981 which makes it compulsory for health facilities and hospitals to notify the Botswana Government of certain diseases like COVID-19 so that they can be brought under control and so Government was forced to close down the hospital temporarily.
The irony is that COVID-19 only shows symptoms after 5 days and that is why it is tested after 8 days. Carriers of virus who may have tested positive at GPH would likely have interacted with others before becoming aware of the fact that they were sickly and going to hospital for treatment.
Officials have therefore been caught in a game of intellectual gymnastics talking variously of probable and confirmed cases because they alleged some of the results had not been confirmed by a World Health Organization(WHO) sanctioned facility and so remained a matter for much speculation.
Government claims were surprising because although health officials alleged the directors of Gaborone Private Hospital(GPH) were guilty of an offence they were not charged.
The Public Health Act stipulates that under section 11 of the aforesaid that (1) Any person who being in charge of any person so suffering so exposes or conveys such sufferer; or (c) gives, lends, sells, transmits or exposes, without previous cleansing, any bedding, clothing, rags or other articles which have been exposed to infection from any such disease, shall be guilty of an offence.
It subsequently became apparent that government officials were appraised of results within hours of the positive results returning from Lancelet laboratory in South Africa. This laboratory is used by the Botswana Government for specialist tests like Ebola and TB. It is also accredited by World Health Organization(WHO) and the NationaI Institute for Communicable Diseases(NCID).
3 of the positive cases were in patients and 5 were those whom swabs were taken and were expected to be taken to theatre. GPH tests all incoming patients before performing medical procedures unless the patient is an emergency case who is in labour or is involved in accident in which case tests are run but patient continues to receive medical attention and will not be sent home before being operation.
Lancet Laboratories in South Africa is one of its original private pathology laboratories and focuses on marrying high quality cutting edge pathology services with efficient turn-around times.
It offers specialist pathology services for the corporate, insurance and mining sectors. It processes more than 1.8 million tests per month and offers an extensive range of pathology services, from sophisticated molecular and cytogenetic investigations to advanced chemical analyses.
Lancet Laboratories is recognized as a partner in fight against COVID-19 by South African government and introduced testing for the Covid-19 corona virus at its molecular laboratory. The group does tests on patients referred by a doctor and prioritizes individuals fulfilling epidemiological and clinical case definitions outlined by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD)
