COVID 19 UPDATE 15 APRIL STATEMENT ON COUNTRYWIDE LOCKDOWN ON ACCOUNT OF COVID 19 PANDEMIC


COVID 19 UPDATE 15 APRIL STATEMENT ON COUNTRYWIDE LOCKDOWN ON ACCOUNT OF COVID 19 PANDEMIC



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Republic of Namibia
COUNTRYWIDE LOCKDOWN ON ACCOUNT OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC
DR KALUMBI SHANGULA, MP
MINISTER
WINDHOEK
15 APRIL, 2020

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It is now three and half months since
World Health Organization and one
recorded in Namibia. The total number
Covid-19 was reported by China to the
month since the first two cases were
of confirmed Covid-19 cases in Namibia
remains
number
16, ten days
of new cases
after
in the
the last case was recorded.
world, the Stagnating figure
Amidst ever increasing
of 16 in Namibia attracts
great interest.
Namibia has been
which applied to
under the State of Emergency for
Erongo and Khomas, has now
a month now.
been extended
The
to
country as from midnight of the 17% April 2020. The announcement
lockdown
the whole
yesterday
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A number of lessons were learned from the implementation of our response
measures.
provided
was very
‘The success we
by the President
key and I must
have score thus far is a result of central leadership
and a single command structure. Public awareness
commend the establishment of the Communication
Centre by the MICT in which the media played a critical role. It was pleasant to
see the messages coming out of the media
continue to do the good job for Namibia.
house united in
The role played
asingle course. Please
by health workers was
crucial.
others.
We can
All the teams without
The public and private
be proud Namibians.
exception, case management, tracers, logistics and
sectors were united in fighting a common enemy.
The job is not done yet. Let us have no illusions that there will be no more cases.
The worst
purpose of
possibility
may still come. The recipe for this to
a continuous lockdown is to suppress
of asymptomatic people with COVID-19
happen is already there. The
transmission by reducing the
from further infecting others
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Our strategy going forward is to increase our monitoring and
have indicated earlier, we have revised out testing strategy to
of community transmission. As we all know, initially we did
to test locally. This has now been done. But the capacity was
surveillance. As I
assess the degree
not have capacity
not enough to do

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all the tests we wanted done due to limited
our testing capacity, we continue to revise
to test as many people as our capacity can
the epidemiological nature of the infection.
going where we are reasonably confident
quantities of reagents. As we increase
our criteria for testing. We are going
allow. In doing so, we are guided by
We are going to do a targeted testing,
of finding the target.
What we are all going to do going forward is
place. Covid-19 is not going around looking
who are the one looking for Covid-19 even if
to defeat Covid-19 is simple. Stay at home!
to comply
for people.
they don’t
with
It is
know
the measures put in
people themselves
that. The solution