…as 80 cases are recorded in one day
Andrew Kathindi
A United Nations official has warned that rising Covid-19 cases could reach 700 for the Erongo region alone and 14,000 countrywide if things continue as they are.
This comes as Namibia recorded its highest number of positive COVID-19 cases in a single day with 80 new cases announced on Wednesday by Health minister Kalumbi Shangula.
Currently, Walvis Bay has seen the highest number of cases, however, in recent days; cases have begun to pop up in Oshana, Zambezi, Hardap and //Karas, some without an identified contact case.
“Data shows with community transmissions now becoming frequent, Namibia could see 14,000 cases countrywide by the end of August if public health is not maintained,” UNAIDS Senior Strategic Information Adviser, Alladji Osseni has told the Windhoek Observer.
“We have an interest to observe public health. The threat is still around because we are surrounded by SADC countries where the epidemic is completely spread in the community and we are interacting with them. Only Walvis Bay, Swakopmund and Arandis are showing us a picture of 700 in two months. If we don’t observe all those precautions, we are going to have at least, in two months, 14,000 cases.”
Osseni added, “If we don’t observe the situation, we see in two weeks what’s happening since 21st of June, we have recorded 150 in just Walvis Bay, Swakopmund and Arandis. If we maintain this type of number for the rest of the regions, it’s exponential. A case can affect 152 cases, we’ve seen with contact tracing people cannot even say where they have gotten the infection from.”
He further noted that the United Nations, with its agency, the World Health Organization (WHO) and other partners like the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had projected that around 180,000 Namibians would have been infected in one year, 27,000 by June, which he says was prevented when the government instituted a state of emergency and stage 1 lockdown in March.
“And it has worked, meaning with the 250 cases we have now, we have avoided 26,500 cases to happen in Namibia.”
Epidemiologist Case Management Focal Person, Dr Catherine Muwonge said that the outbreak in Namibia is just the beginning and there is a possibility of various transmission scenarios to happen in other regions of the country. She said one of the factors that could impact the extent of the outbreak in other regions is the population density.
“There is concern, and that is why we have to be vigilant and make sure that as we map out and risk-profile regions. We need to institute public health measures and educate the population to adhere to these measures, so that we can try to slow transmission. At this point, we may not be able to prevent transmission, but we can slow transmission,” she told Windhoek Observer.
“But again, it also depends on the public health practices, how they’re being adhered to in the different regions. So you will have variations in the transmission scenarios in the different regions, depending on the factors that are unique to the regions.”
She also argued that Namibia at one point went 45 days without recording a new case in April and part of May because most of the country was in lockdown.
Shangula previously told Windhoek Observer that the government does not only take rising cases into consideration when initiating lockdown, but also the economic impact of the lockdown.
