By BY NELISIWE DLAMINI

MBABANE:The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has since warned travelers that eSwatini is now at level 4 COVID-19 risk. 

In a statement released on its website on 9 August 2021, the American Federal Agency tasked with protecting the health of Americans and to fight diseases globally warned travelers to avoid traveling  to eSwatini, or they must make sure they are fully vaccinated before travel, because of the current situation in eSwatini, even fully vaccinated travelers may be at risk of getting and spreading COVID-19 variants.

“Avoid travel to Eswatini,If you must travel to Eswatini, make sure you are fully vaccinated before you travel”, reads the statement in part.

This comes after the government of eSwatini failed to procure vaccines despite setting aside E200 million for same. Eswatini has been relying on donations since the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic with the latest donation being  302 400  doses of the Johnson& Johnson vaccine from the United States of America (USA).

Speaking to this Swaziland News, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Thuli Dladla said the whole world was grappling with this deadly disease and it was paramount that we all exercised extra caution.

“We will all learn to live with it, the vaccination role out will definitely help us live with it and we are looking forward to seeing all people of the world vaccinated. As a country we fully understand the caution about our level and like any other country we will go back to non-alarming levels”, said the Minister .

Mayibongwe Masangane, the Secretary General of Swaziland Democratic Nurses Union (SWADNU) said the country was not doing enough in as far as containing the virus was concerned.

“It is a fact that as a country we are not doing enough in as far as controlling the spread of the virus is concerned. We are faced with a lack of important drugs, there is lack of medical personnel, lack of medical supplies which include PPE. The vaccination program is very slow compared to other countries,  we depend on donors for vaccine so one is not surprised,”said the Secretary General.

Rejoice Nkhambule , the  Deputy Director of Health Services said they would advise the Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Health on the new developments.

“The PS will be advised on the response based on the meeting outcome as we are in the meeting that discusses the COVID-19 Epidemiology locally and globally\", she said.