By Nelson Manneh
The Gambia has registered three (3) new COVID-19 related deaths on the 19th August 2020, bringing the total number of deaths to eighty-four (84).
The samples from all three deceased cases were collected posthumously.
Four posthumous sample results were received by the health authorities, three returned positive and one tested negative for COVID-19 and the median age, at death, of the deceased cases, is 52 years.
On the same day, the Gambia registered thirty-six (36) new cases; taking the total number of COVID-19 cases ever confirmed in the country to two thousand four hundred and thirty-seven (2,437)
This according to health authorities represents a 27% test positivity rate. The median age of the new cases is 32 years.
The country currently has two hundred and ninety-one (291) people in quarantine, one thousand eight hundred ninety-six (1,896) active cases, two hundred and fourteen (214) probable cases eighty-four (84) and a crude case-fatality ratio of 3.4%.
Modou Njai the Director of Health Promotion and Education at the Ministry of Health said one hundred and thirty-five (135) new laboratory test results were received from the Medical Research Council (MRCG) and the National Public Health Lab (NPHL).
Of these, he said thirteen (13) new tests returned indeterminant and twenty (20) new discharges effected from the treatment centres, bringing the cumulative number of recoveries to date to four hundred and fifty-five (4550.
One person was newly taken into quarantine while no new discharges were made from the quarantine.
The bulk of the active cases are asymptomatic and is as such self-isolating at home pending the manifestation of symptoms.
