Ntsoaki Motaung
Following the announcement by the Prime Minister Dr Moeketsi Majoro that services would be withheld from members of society not vaccinated against the Covid-19 pandemic, the Deputy Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Covid-19 Secretariat (NACOSEC) Thabo Ntoi, lauded the move while attributing reduced numbers of deaths and severe sickness from covid-19 related complications to the vaccination exercise.
Addressing a media briefing at the NACOSEC base in Maseru yesterday, Ntoi said the numbers of people who get very sick and need to be medically attended to, or be admitted into hospitals because they cannot be treated at home as a result of Covid-19 have greatly reduced.
He indicated that according to their statistics of epidemic week 52 spanning December 26, 2021 through January 01, 2022, the rate of people admitted in health centers was 14% slightly increasing by 1% from that of week 51 which was 13%.
“We have also seen that we have recorded deaths even in low numbers. In week 51 we recorded 3 deaths but in week 52 we recorded 5 deaths,†he said, adding that the positivity rate is 7% which is a high number.
“According to statistics, in week 52 the country recorded 1860 positive cases and that is a huge number for a country like Lesotho. For week 52, 26,947 specimens were tested and 1806 came back positive,†he said.
He indicated that 836,687 people have already been which totals about 52.3% of the 1.6 million target the country has set in order to be fully out of the woods as far as the covid-19 risk.
Ntoi said all in all the situation still shows that positive cases are still high although they have been reduced for the past week.
“We are still looking for people to get vaccinated so that we can end up not having anyone who gets sick or dies of covid-19 related illnesses. That will also help us avoid going back to the times when movement was restricted,†he said.
Meanwhile, speaking at the same briefing, the Legal Officer of NACOSEC Tlotliso Tlelai pointed out that although the Prime Minister indicated that other countries are now thinking of Booster Shots, Lesotho has not had any thoughts about the booster shots because it is still far from reaching its target for vaccinated people.
“We still have a larger population of people who have not vaccinated and we have to ensure that the vaccines that we have reach to those people before we can even think of the booster shots,†Tlelai said.
