GOVT STANDS BY ITS WORD ON LOCKDOWN EXTENSION

LOBAMBA – Government is not prepared to honour the House of Assembly’s resolution, calling for the review of its decision to extend the partial lockdown by a period of two weeks.

This was evident in a report which was tabled by the Acting Prime Minister, Themba Masuku, in the House yesterday. The motion had been passed last week after it was moved by Lobamba Lomdzala Member of Parliament Marwick Khumalo and supported by Manzini South MP Thandi Nxumalo, that government should review this decision within 48 hours.
In his response, the acting PM stated that the COVID-19 pandemic was still prevalent in the country and the kingdom had not yet reached a stage where they may start relaxing all sectors of the economy. Masuku stated that the country was still reporting on average 25 cases per day, as observed in the past week.

Advice

He said according to health advice, they needed a baseline averaging 10 new cases a day consistently to be able to ease these restrictions. “Government has taken the tough decision to extend the partial lockdown restrictions by a further two weeks primarily to protect all the people of Eswatini,” said Masuku. He stated that the decision taken by government was, therefore, informed by logic based on scientific facts, adding that there was nothing as precious and important as life. Masuku said there was still a danger of an emergence of new variants which may be more transmissible and deadly. The acting PM said the circulation of more transmissible viruses needed to be stopped further. “I can inform the House that as a country, we have now received confirmation that the dangerous variant known as coronavirus 501Y.V2, which was first reported in South Africa last year, is the majority variant (88 per cent) found in the country, following a batch of samples that were tested for the variant,” said Masuku.

He reported that this showed that the country was still in real danger and, therefore, a further extension of the restrictions would protect the nation from an early resurgence of new cases caused by the dangerous variant. Masuku said to date, the total number of people who had died in the country was 658, which translated to a significant number of fatalities for a population of just over a million. He said the large majority of the deaths were recorded between December 2020 and February 2021 at the height of the second wave. “The pain that the country experienced due to the second wave was unbearable and should not be experienced again,” he said.

Imminent

Masuku informed the legislators that health experts had warned that a third wave was imminent in a few weeks as some countries overseas were now edging closer to the third wave projected to be even more deadlier. Masuku said Eswatini had learned from the first and second waves that preparedness was not an option, but a necessity. “We need to delay the start of the third wave,” he said. He said with the understanding that the coronavirus mutates, it was projected that more virulent variants would come with the third wave. He stated that government needed to buy more time to be fully prepared for the third wave in order to save lives. He said the primary responsibility of any government was to protect its citizens.
“We have a responsibility to ensure that all sectors of the economy are only opened when it is safe to do so with minimal threat to the to the lives of emaSwati and residents of the kingdom,” said Masuku.

Meanwhile, the acting PM said the Ministry of Health was working closely with the Ministry of Education and Training to continue expanding services in preparation for the reopening of schools, taking into consideration that decentralisation of services for testing, isolation and treatment were critical in order for learners, teachers, parents and guardians to be protected from the effects of the virus. He said the Ministry of Education and Training had developed a comprehensive plan to safely and innovatively reopen schools. He said the plan served  the country well when completing classes resumed after the first wave last year.

Masks

He stated that hand-washing facilities were built in most schools, 250 000 masks were bought for scholars and educators and a physical distancing protocol was established in all schools.
Masuku said additional testing kioks had been opened to increase testing points for scholars so as to minimise long queues when they needed to test. He said currently, the Manzini Region had 14 testing points, Hhohho Region with 16, while the Lubombo Region had seven and Shiselweni had five. He stated that another 100 additional testing points would be established in the regions over the next two weeks and the rest would be rolled out by the end of March 2021. Masuku said additional isolation facilities had also been opened in each region to bring them closer to pupils and teachers with 12 being in Manzini, seven in Hhhohho and three and five respectively in the Shiselweni and Lubombo regions.

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