Chairperson for Southern African Development Community (SADC) President Dr Lazarus Chakwera has spoken of the need for respect of all humanity and collaboration among all sectors in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.

President Chakwera was speaking on Tuesday after holding bilateral talks with his Botswana counterpart, President Mokgweetsi Masisi at the country’s office of the President.

Dr Chakwera’s comment follows a travel ban imposed by several western countries on the Southern African countries.

‘As the Covid 19 Omicron variant continues to pose a threat to the socio-economic development of countries, its emergence has also negatively affected our efforts to integrate and develop the Southern African Development Community, SADC, member states. As I said before, the pandemic is not for a particular region. It is a global problem which must be fought against collaboratively, to overcome it together,’ he said.

Commenting on the visit to the SADC Secretariat by the SADC Chairperson, the Botswana President, Mokgweetsi Masisi, described it as historic as it also accorded the two leaders an opportunity to discuss bilateral issues.

Research has shown that since the onset of Covid 19, Botswana has so far registered over 196,000 Covid 19 cases while Malawi has so far registered over 62,000 cases.