COVID-19 pandemic in Lesotho
The COVID-19 pandemic in Lesotho is part of the ongoing worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The virus was confirmed to have reached Lesotho on 13 May 2020.
| COVID-19 pandemic in Lesotho | |
|---|---|
| Disease | COVID-19 |
| Virus strain | SARS-CoV-2 |
| Location | Lesotho |
| First outbreak | Wuhan, Hubei, China 30°35′14″N 114°17′17″E |
| Arrival date | 13 May 2020 (3 years, 11 months and 6 days) |
| Confirmed cases | 36,138 |
| Recovered | 34,067 |
Deaths | 709 |
| Government website | |
| National COVID-19 Secretariat | |
Prior to this, Lesotho was the last country in Africa to have no reported cases of COVID-19 during the global pandemic.
The country did not have the ability to test for the virus, and so, in order to prevent the spread of the virus the government closed its border with South Africa. On 18 March, the government declared a national emergency despite having no confirmed cases, and closed schools until 17 April, but allowed school meals to continue. Arriving travellers were to be quarantined for 14 days upon arrival. Prime Minister Thomas Thabane announced a three-week lock down from midnight 29 March. Lesotho began sending its samples to South Africa's National Institute for Communicable Diseases for testing.
Recorded cases started to increase rapidly in 2021, with revelations that the government had released COVID-19-positive people from quarantine early, as well as cases attributed to workers travelling home from South Africa. On 8 January, South African border authorities estimated that more than 100 Lesotho arrivals a day were testing positive.