By Nelson Manneh
The Gambia has on Wednesday 4th August 2021 registered fourteen (14) new COVID-19-related deaths, bringing the total number of deaths since March 2020 to two hundred and twenty-seven.
The decedents were seven males and seven females with an age range of 34 – 85 years. The youngest (34 years) was pregnant.
All had severe covid-19 pneumonia with few being diabetes and hypertensive patients. All were admitted in the COVID 19 treatment centres.
The country on the same day also registered three hundred and thirty-four new cases, taking the total number of COVID-19 cases ever confirmed in the country to eight thousand, two hundred and ninety-six.
Two hundred and thirty-seven of the newly confirmed cases were with known reasons for testing, one hundred and twenty-one tested for travelling, fifty-three for suspicion of COVID-19 after being sick, fourteen contacts with a confirmed case and thirty-two wanted to know their COVID-19 status.
The cases are composed of 192 males and 142 females with a median age of 35.5 years.
This is the 348th national situation report since the confirmation of the first case of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in The Gambia, on the 16th March 2020. Currently, the Gambia has no one in hotel quarantine, but has nine hundred and forty-seven active cases.
Modou Njai, the Director of Health Promotion and Education at the Ministry of Health, said a total of 2,501 new laboratory test results were received from the National Public Health Lab and the Medical Research Council.
Of these, 334 tested positive, representing a 13.4 % test positivity rate. Twenty-one (21) new COVID-19 patients were newly discharged from treatment centres, while 253 got discharged at least 10 days from the day they tested positive, but evaded institutional isolation.
Five (5) new contracts were traced and are being monitored.
