Covid-19: Botswana president back to work after coronavirus illness

GABORONE— Botswana President Mokgweetsi Masisi has returned to work after going into self-isolation since Jan 2 after testing positive for Covid-19 in the last week of 2021 but didn’t show any symptoms.

In his absence, his deputy, Slumber Tsogwane assumed presidential duties.

On Tuesday, Tsogwane flew to Malawi to join heads of state in Malawi attending SADC’s Extraordinary Summit to review the regional bloc’s mission in Mozambique against insurgency.

In announcing Masisi’s return to work, John-Thomas Dipowe, acting permanent secretary for government communications, said, “We are pleased to inform the nation that his medical team has assessed his health status and subsequently cleared him because he continues to have no Covid-19 associated symptoms.”

Masisi tested positive after having met his Mozambican counterpart President Filipe Nyusi, who also tested positive along with his wife. The two leaders held meetings in Cabo Delgado Province in late December.

Nyusi recovered last week and he joined other SADC leaders in Malawi on Tuesday.

Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, in southern Africa, eSwatini’s King Mswati III, Namibia’s Hage Geingob, Lesotho’s Moeketsi Majoro, South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa, Nyusi and Masisi had all, at one point, contracted Covid-19.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK