Kamwi calls for mass testing
The former health minister recognises the financial challenge of rolling out wider diagnostic testing, but says this is the best weapon.
JEMIMA BEUKES
WINDHOEK
As Namibia’s lockdown is extended to 4 May, former health minister Richard Kamwi, who is a member of the steering committee for the African task force on Covid-19, has suggested that Namibia embarks on mass diagnostic testing to successfully eliminate the coronavirus.
He hastened to concede that while mass testing is the most lethal weapon against the virus, Namibia’s economy is not in a state to enable such a rollout.
Both Prime Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila and health minister Kalumbi Shangula told Namibian Sun on Monday that the government had abandoned plans for mass testing. They did not explain the departure from the original plan, with the Namibia Institute of Pathology (NIP) having declared recently that it had boosted its capacity to test ‘thousands’ of people.
As of yesterday, only 495 people had been tested in the country since the first infections were detected on March 13.
Neighbouring South Africa had tested about 90 000 people through the mass tests campaign as of yesterday.
“Having tested [495] people for the last two months without a denominator is not sufficient for us to establish a curve,” Dr Kamwi told Namibian Sun yesterday.
Statistical Modelling
Instead, the Namibian government will depend on the rate of the spread of the disease as a guiding tool.
“The decision will be based on the number of people tested. We will be looking at the basic reproduction ratio of the disease. The decision will be based on the ratio of the spread of the disease in Namibia … that will be used to determine the activeness of the disease,” Shangula said.
Kamwi, who was one of Namibia’s most successful health ministers, disagrees with this strategy.
“Generally, mass diagnostic testing will give you maximum results as you will know who is infected within a given population and also answer active surveillance,” he said.
“However, there is an element of economic challenge. Diagnostic test kits? They are likely to be too expensive – it is simply not a cost-effective exercise given the current economic situation of our country.
“Logistics on the ground are not affordable at this stage. It calls for expertise and serious logistics, for example protective gear for frontline workers to be in place,” he added.
Kamwi added: “Whilst I remain an advocate for aggressive treatment and control measures to fight any threat of the pandemic surely may not be same for [coronavirus] as you may only treat opportunistic diseases just as is the case with HIV/AIDS.
“If resources were something to go by, I would rather advise a countrywide lockdown in order to completely contain the pandemic within a short space of time but it is an expensive exercise. The question however remains: can Namibia afford it? It all boils down to political will.”
Countrywide travel ban
Government yesterday said travel restrictions would now be implemented countrywide in a bid to continue stifling the spread of the coronavirus.
During a State House media conference yesterday, health minister Dr Kalumbi Shangula also disclosed that one of the current 16 coronavirus patients had seven contacts outside his family, and was released from quarantine without extended laboratory testing.
According to him there therefore exists a small but practical risk that some of these asymptomatic cases from quarantine might be infectious.
“The current lockdown in the Erongo and Khomas regions has not been efficient. There has been a breach of interventions with implications of potential community spread within the regions of confirmed cases with the risk of wider spread in the entire country,” he said.
Shangula added that case 15 also breached the self-isolation regulations while waiting for his results and was “out and about” in the community.
WINDHOEK
As Namibia’s lockdown is extended to 4 May, former health minister Richard Kamwi, who is a member of the steering committee for the African task force on Covid-19, has suggested that Namibia embarks on mass diagnostic testing to successfully eliminate the coronavirus.
He hastened to concede that while mass testing is the most lethal weapon against the virus, Namibia’s economy is not in a state to enable such a rollout.
Both Prime Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila and health minister Kalumbi Shangula told Namibian Sun on Monday that the government had abandoned plans for mass testing. They did not explain the departure from the original plan, with the Namibia Institute of Pathology (NIP) having declared recently that it had boosted its capacity to test ‘thousands’ of people.
As of yesterday, only 495 people had been tested in the country since the first infections were detected on March 13.
Neighbouring South Africa had tested about 90 000 people through the mass tests campaign as of yesterday.
“Having tested [495] people for the last two months without a denominator is not sufficient for us to establish a curve,” Dr Kamwi told Namibian Sun yesterday.
Statistical Modelling
Instead, the Namibian government will depend on the rate of the spread of the disease as a guiding tool.
“The decision will be based on the number of people tested. We will be looking at the basic reproduction ratio of the disease. The decision will be based on the ratio of the spread of the disease in Namibia … that will be used to determine the activeness of the disease,” Shangula said.
Kamwi, who was one of Namibia’s most successful health ministers, disagrees with this strategy.
“Generally, mass diagnostic testing will give you maximum results as you will know who is infected within a given population and also answer active surveillance,” he said.
“However, there is an element of economic challenge. Diagnostic test kits? They are likely to be too expensive – it is simply not a cost-effective exercise given the current economic situation of our country.
“Logistics on the ground are not affordable at this stage. It calls for expertise and serious logistics, for example protective gear for frontline workers to be in place,” he added.
Kamwi added: “Whilst I remain an advocate for aggressive treatment and control measures to fight any threat of the pandemic surely may not be same for [coronavirus] as you may only treat opportunistic diseases just as is the case with HIV/AIDS.
“If resources were something to go by, I would rather advise a countrywide lockdown in order to completely contain the pandemic within a short space of time but it is an expensive exercise. The question however remains: can Namibia afford it? It all boils down to political will.”
Countrywide travel ban
Government yesterday said travel restrictions would now be implemented countrywide in a bid to continue stifling the spread of the coronavirus.
During a State House media conference yesterday, health minister Dr Kalumbi Shangula also disclosed that one of the current 16 coronavirus patients had seven contacts outside his family, and was released from quarantine without extended laboratory testing.
According to him there therefore exists a small but practical risk that some of these asymptomatic cases from quarantine might be infectious.
“The current lockdown in the Erongo and Khomas regions has not been efficient. There has been a breach of interventions with implications of potential community spread within the regions of confirmed cases with the risk of wider spread in the entire country,” he said.
Shangula added that case 15 also breached the self-isolation regulations while waiting for his results and was “out and about” in the community.
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