One of the few places in the world to remain apparently free of coronavirus has recorded its first case.
The government of Lesotho said on Wednesday there is now a likelihood that more cases could be recorded before the end of the week after the Ministry of Health said it was awaiting results for 301 cases where tests had been done and sent to neighbouring South Africa.
The tiny southern African mountain kingdom had until Tuesday enjoyed the tag of being the only Covid-19-free country on the continent.
But the enviable distinction evaporated with the government saying one suspected case had come back positive from 81 samples sent for testing in South Africa on Saturday. The tests were for people coming back from South Africa and parts of the Middle East.
“On 9 May 2020, the Ministry [of Health] conducted 81 tests for Covid-19 from travellers from South Africa and Saudi Arabia,” a spokesperson said on Wednesday.
“On 11 May 2020 the samples were shipped to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) in South Africa and results were obtained on 12 May 2020. Eighty people tested negative for Covid-19 while one tested positive.”
Earlier on Wednesday, the inter-ministerial committee tasked with spearheading Lesotho’s Covid-19 response had tweeted that the positive case “was imported from the Middle East and the patient has no signs and symptoms”.
The first positive case comes a week after the country lifted its national lockdown. Lesotho’s lockdown started on 30 April and lasted until 5 May. The lockdown was lifted against the advice of the inter-ministerial committee which said the country was not prepared to deal with a possible outbreak since its quarantine facilities comprised just 148 beds.
As news reached the capital, Maseru, some people expressed fears that the country’s health system was ill-equipped to handle Covid-19.
The health ministry said on Wednesday it was waiting for results to come back from South Africa.
“To date, we have sent 597 specimens for testing at NICD, 295 are negative and 301 are still pending.”
The ministry said it would continue to carry out active case-finding through screening and testing of all suspected cases at designated points of entry and at health facilities while monitoring those in quarantine.
There are also fears that more cases could arise as many Lesotho nationals continue to ignore the government’s pleas not to illegally cross back into the country from neighbouring South Africa, which has been hit harder by the virus. South Africa has the highest number of Covid-19 cases on the continent, and by Wednesday had recorded 11,300 cases and more than 200 deaths.
Last week Lesotho’s prime minister, Thomas Thabane, expressed disappointment that hundreds of people were taking advantage of the two countries’ porous borders to illegally come back into Lesotho. Thabane said such actions could sharply increase the number of infections in Lesotho.
Health ministry official Makhoase Ranyali-Otubanjo said last week alone 1,000 people had returned from South Africa, whose border with Lesotho remained closed because of the pandemic.
“More than 1,000 Basotho arrived from South Africa over the past few days: 664 came through porous borders from 3 to 7 May 2020, 500 came from South African prisons and 97 were held back by the lockdown in that country,” Ranyali-Otubanjo said.
Those returning were screened, she said, and 13 taken to isolation facilities after exhibiting symptoms.
Last week the government also said it was looking to the hospitality industry in an effort to increase the number of available beds.
The situation is not helped by a delay in setting aside funds for the pandemic response, which is reliant on the eventual passing of the country’s 2020/21 budget.
