Covid-19 fear reaches Namibia

WINDHOEK: Namibia should by right feel little concern about the coronavirus outbreak given that the sparsely-populated desert country is 12,000km from China and is without a single confirmed case.

But like many countries on the continent, the southern African nation hosts a big Chinese retail business community with close links to home.

And as the fear of infection spreads, businesses are taking things into their own hands.

A notice in Chinese and English taped to an aluminium shutter on a Chinese-owned shop in Windhoek’s Chinatown spells it out: Any merchant returning to Namibia from China “must be quarantined for 14 days and keep the shop closed for that period”, state the typed instructions signed by the Chinatown management.

Many shop owners who travelled to China for the year-end break have opted to stay put instead of returning to Windhoek’s Chinatown, a vast complex of nearly 200 retail, wholesale, food and electronics outlets in the northern industrial district of the capital. In one block of 90 shops, 20 stores have not re-opened.

Shop owner Miang Li said inventories are dwindling because owners would not travel to China for their usual re-stock runs, but instead would clear last year’s stock at marked down prices.

Health Minister Kalumbi Shangula said the government would screen visitors at all entry points into the country.

“Every passenger, whether from China or other countries, who enters Namibia, will go through a thorough screening process,” the minister told AFP.