Botswana’s president ends isolation after asymptomatic COVID-19

Botswana’s President Mokgweetsi Eric Keabetswe Masisi speaks during the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly at the U.N. headquarters in New York, U.S., September 23, 2021. | PHOTO: Spencer Platt/Pool via REUTERS

GABORONE — Botswana’s President Mokgweetsi Masisi has left isolation just over a week after testing positive for COVID-19 without symptoms, the government said on Wednesday.

“His medical team has assessed his health status and subsequently cleared him because he continues to have no COVID-19 associated symptoms,” government spokesman John-Thomas Dipowe said.

New coronavirus infections have risen in the southern African country since the detection of the Omicron variant late last year, from fewer than 300 every three days before Omicron to an average of more than 2,500.

But health officials say there has not been a feared surge in hospitalizations, which may be partly due to the fact that Botswana has fully vaccinated nearly three quarters of its eligible population of around 1.3 million people.

Masisi’s positive test was announced on Jan. 3.

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