News and Events

Honourable Dr Edwin Dikoloti says the team at the National Health Laboratory (NHL) has so far done so much during the COVID-19 pandemic but it is difficult to appreciate it. Honorable Dr Dikoloti says NHL needs to rebrand itself and come out and do public education. He said this today during a visit to the laboratory with the intent to appreciate what NHL does. Honourable Dikoloti says the National Health Laboratory has potential to open borders for neighbouring states to come and test here and advised leadership to automate and standardize their processes.

Senior Consultant Virologist at NHL Dr Madisa Mine informed the minister that currently the laboratory receives about 2 000 COVID-19 specimens daily from contact tracing team, borders and facilities in the greater Gaborone. Dr Mine and his team took the minister through the process of testing; from collection of specimens to resulting or informing the client about their status. The team explained that the laboratory has a turnaround time of 24 hours although it could go up to 48 hours. Negative results are communicated to the client via SMS whereas positives are repeated before being communicated to the client. Dr Mine sighted some of the challenges they are faced with that include shortage of Medical Laboratory Scientists. He said the laboratory has enough Data Clerks and Health Care Auxiliaries but calls for a review of the curriculum. Currently there is an ongoing restructuring of NHL leadership to empower the lab to function optimally. Read more...