The outbreak of COVID-19 is said to have affected the living conditions of San communities in the Tsumkwe Constituency. The community is particularly at a high risk of contracting the virus, because of their way of living, if urgent measures are not put in place to assist them. Tsumkwe Constituency Councillor Fransina Ghauz said this during the question time of the State of the Region address by Otjozondjupa, Governor James Uerikua listed a number of challenges facing the Sam communities. Ghauz said, "honourable Governor, this constituency is so vast and we are talking about COVID-19 pandemic and I think the constituency has a lot of challenges of face masks. We also have commercial farms, lots of marginalised San people are also living at those farms. It's a big concern for me because I don't think those people are under protection of COVID-19. The councillor also emphasised a lack of health facilities in the constituency. In response, Uerikua said the Ministry of Health has put measures in place to mitigate the challenges in Tsumkwe constituency. He said, "the feeding programme came to a standstill in March 2020 because of the financial issues that we couldn't keep up, and as such all these communities were integrated in the supposed to be regional council food distribution programme." He further said, "as you might be aware a patient coming all the way from Gam or Tsumkwe where you are bitten by a snake you have to travel 200 to 250km to the next place and that's only Mangetti, the road is terrible and of course these ambulances are just bakkies, your situation is understandable. We discussed the issue strongly with the director of health and I was informed that there is doctor who will officially be in Tsumkwe. We are now working on upgrading Tsumkwe to a district level and Gam to a health centre level to enable the doctor to operate from there".