Botswana President Mokgweetsi Masisi declared a state of emergency from midnight on 2 April until further notice after the country reported its first three confirmed cases of novel coronavirus. Polity quotes Masisi as saying that the Botswana Constitution empowered him as president to declare a state of emergency at any time. Where the president declared this when parliament was not sitting, such as state of emergency was valid for 21 days.
He said during the period of "extreme lockdown" all individuals across the country would be expected to adhere to a more severe form of social distancing where movement outside homes would only be allowed for those performing essential services and transporting essential goods. "Those involved will be permitted to travel using the COVID-19 travel permit that will be issued by government," said the president.
The report says on Monday Health Minister Lemogang Kwape announced Botswana had recorded its first three confirmed cases of COVID-19, saying the two men and a woman had travelled to the UK and Thailand. They were kept in isolation at the Sir Ketumile Hospital and other secure places.
"We have now moved from prevention to containment, in the past we have preached prevention but, now that we have cases we have moved to prevention and containment at the same time," Kwape said in the report.
[link url="https://www.polity.org.za/article/botswana-declares-state-of-emergency-after-reporting-first-covid-19-cases-2020-03-31"]Full Polity report[/link]