Eswatini Prime Minister Moved To S.Africa For Covid-19 Treatment

The prime minister of Eswatini, Africa's last absolute monarchy, has been taken to neighbouring South Africa for treatment, more than two weeks after he contracted Covid-19, the government said Tuesday

Mbabane, eSwatini, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 1st Dec, 2020 ):The prime minister of Eswatini, Africa's last absolute monarchy, has been taken to neighbouring South Africa for treatment, more than two weeks after he contracted Covid-19, the government said Tuesday.

The country's 52-year-old premier Ambrose Dlamini announced on November 16 that he had tested positive but that he felt well and was asymptomatic.

But on Tuesday Deputy Prime Minister Themba Masuku said Dlamini was "stable" and "responding well to treatment".

"To guide and fast track the recovery, a decision has been taken that he be transferred to a South African hospital this afternoon," Masuku announced in a statement.

Formerly known as Swaziland, the kingdom has reported 6,419 coronavirus cases and 122 deaths among its population of 1.2 million people.

A South Africa-based civil society group, the Swaziland Solidarity Network (SSN), accused the government of giving the prime minister special treatment by moving him to a country with better healthcare.

"He too should go to a hospital in Swaziland (Eswatini) so that he can fully understand what Swazis go through every time they go to hospital," the SSN said in a statement.

More than 39 percent of the tiny landlocked country's population lived below the poverty line in 2016 and 2017, according to the World Bank.