The Office of the Prime Minister says it is vital for the country to be under lockdown restrictions in order to prevent the rapid spread of the coronavirus and cost effects of the pandemic to livelihoods and the country’s economy.
This, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NACOSEC, Dr Malitaba Litaba said when addressing the media during the press conference held at Manthabiseng Convention Centre on Wednesday.
Dr Litaba said to date, the country has tested 44, 401 specimens and of this total, 7,035 have tested positive for COVID-19 since May last year when the first case was recorded, recorded deaths have risen to 103, saying this only covers the confirmed deaths.
She noted that when introducing the 2-weeks lockdown, which is intended to curb the spread of the virus in the country, NACOSEC has introduced the Public Health Care Strategy, saying this will help in preventing the spread of the COVID-19 as prevention is better than curing the disease.
She said to achieve this, Rapid Antigen Test has been introduced to enhance testing within the communities, adding that this will help avoid delay in finding results as this test provides results within 15-30 minutes.
Again, Public Health teams have been introduced to enhance the Rapid Antigen Test and currently, this is operational in Maseru while Berea and Leribe began on Wednesday (20/01/2021).
The teams will also do contact finding to prevent those who tested positive not to further infect others thus ensuring the curb against the spread of the virus and low death rate.
Dr Litaba further mentioned that the Primary Health Care strategy includes a multi-sectoral approach which she noted is vital as COVID-19 affects social conduct and the economy hence working together in this regard will help in the fight against this pandemic.
She noted that public education is also vital in ensuring that Basotho have knowledge about the pandemic and its effects, saying District COVID-19 Secretariats’ (DICOSECs) engagement in the fight against the pandemic is vital as these entities serve as overseers of public activities at district and community councils’ levels hence will promote community participation and engagement in the fight against the pandemic.
She commented that community participation and engagement in the fight against the pandemic will contribute immensely to changing people’s behavior hence curb the spread of the COVID-19 in the country.
Talking about compliance to COVID-19 regulations, she said Stakeholder Forum has been established to enhance stakeholders’ engagement and cooperation in enforcing public compliance to regulations.
Dr Litaba, therefore, appealed for public cooperation in ensuring the success of all the introduced initiatives and compliance to COVID-19 regulations, noting that staying at home prevents the spread of this virus.
Speaking on the issue of the Disaster Management Authority (DMA) budget for COVID-19, Mr. Mosito Maqekoane noted that to date, more than M341 million has been used thus refuting allegations on social media that the NACOSEC has so far used M1.5 billion.
He added that the more than M341 million used is part of the M698 million budget that was allocated to DMA until October 2020, saying the utilized budget covered key programme activities like procurement of PPE, Oxygen, patents’ cure,  payment of quarantine facilities, and health workers’ allowances including support activities like salaries of the support staff, transport and office operations.
Mr. Maqekoane commented that NACOSEC is a structure established to support DMA activities hence operates under DMA, stressing that it uses DMA resources.
The press conference which was led by the Principal Secretary-Cabinet (Economic Affairs), Mr. Kabelo Lehora and a team of senior officials in the Office of the Prime Minister and NACOSEC aimed at briefing the public about DMA operations especially the budget and progress regarding NACOSEC activities.