Rustenburg - Eswatini has recorded two more new confirmed cases of Covid-19 bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 12, Health Minister Lizzie Nkosi said on Wednesday.
"The 11th case is a 44-year-old male from the Hhohho Region, who is a clinician with no history of travel.
“The 12th case is a female, 36 years old, of Manzini Region. She has a history of contact with a regular traveller to South Africa. The ministry is taking steps to ensure that all those who were in contact with these two news cases are being tested," Nkosi said.
The ministry said that seven patients had tested negative and had been discharged.
Nkosi requested the public to cooperate with rapid response teams as they go about their duties finding contacts of positive cases.
She said preparations to conduct testing locally were progressing well.
"Test runs are being conducted at the National Reference Lab in Mbabane, which is now being designated as the Covid-19 testing facility and the lab will be testing at a range of 60-100 tests per day.
Eswatini is on a partial lockdown in a bid to halt the spread of Covid-19 an infectious disease caused by a new coronavirus. The disease causes respiratory illness with flu-like symptoms such as a dry cough, high fever, and in more severe cases, difficulty in breathing.
People can protect themselves by washing hands frequently, avoiding touching their faces, and avoiding close contact with (staying at least one metre away from) other people.
The virus was first recorded in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, and rapidly spread to other parts of the world. So far there are more than 1.4 million confirmed cases worldwide with more than 85,000 deaths and over 316,000 recoveries since the outbreak over the past three months.