By Nelson Manneh
The Gambia has on Wednesday 19th August 2020 registered fourteen (14) new COVID-19 related deaths bringing the total number of deaths ever registered in the country to seventy-seven (77).
Not all the said deaths occurred on a single day as sampling dates spanned from the 14th August to 17th August 2020. Samples of all 14 deaths were collected posthumously.
On the same day, the Gambia registered one hundred and seventy-two (172) new cases of Covid-19, taking the total number of COVID-19 cases ever confirmed in the country to two thousand two hundred and eighty-eight (2,288).
This, according to health experts, represents a 33% test positivity rate and the median age of the new cases is 36 years.
The Gambia currently has three hundred and two (302) people in quarantine, one thousand seven hundred and seventy-six (1,776) active cases, seventy-seven (77) COVID-19 deaths and one hundred and ninety-eight (198) probable cases.
Twenty (20) new discharges effected from the treatment centres, bringing the cumulative number of recoveries to date to four hundred and thirty-five.
Mr. Modou Njai the Director of Health Promotion and Education at the Ministry of Health said Laptops, printers and other gadgets were provided to the National Public Health Lab (NPHL) by the World Bank Group to support the implementation of e-surveillance.
He said five (5) persons were newly taken into quarantine while fourteen (14) new discharges were made.
