Rustenburg – Lesotho confirmed another two coronavirus cases linked to South Africa on Wednesday, bringing its total number of infections to four.
According to the Lesotho director of health services, Dr Nyane Letsie, the new patients had travelled from Cape Town on May 29 on separate routes.
She said that 421 samples were collected from travellers that had entered the country from South Africa.
"The samples were sent to the (National Institute for Communicable Diseases) in the Republic of South Africa for testing on 29 May.
"The results were received on 1 June. Of the 421 samples, 419 tested negative for SARS-Cov-2 while two tested positive."
Two follow-up samples from the the second confirmed case were among the 419 that tested negative and that case would be recorded as negative, said Letsie.
"His closest family members – a mother and two siblings – and two other contacts, have tested negative for SARS-Cov-2," she said.
The first case in Lesotho involved a person that had travelled from Saudi Arabia and had subsequently recovered from the virus. The second patient had travelled from South Africa and was also declared recovered on Wednesday.
According to Lesotho's National Emergency Command Centre (NECC), at least 2 113 travellers from South Africa were screened at five operational ports of entry between May 18 and 24.
The small, mountainous kingdom is encircled by South Africa and daily travel between the countries, particularly for students, is common.
Lesotho, with a population of just over 2 million people, has the lowest number of Covid-19 cases in Africa. Its health authorities have thus far performed 1 515 tests for the virus and no Covid-19-related deaths have been reported.
South Africa, with a population of 59 248 777, has recorded the highest number of infections on the continent and performed the most tests for the virus – 761,534.
As of Tuesday, it had registered 35 812 Covid-19 cases, with 18 313 recoveries, and 755 deaths.
African News Agency (ANA)