By Ndey Sowe
Four people who sneaked into the country are under mandatory quarantine.
Dr. Mustapha Bittaye, the Acting Director of Health Services on Wednesday 15th April, confirmed that one of the newly quarantined individuals involves one who was a close contact to one of the recent five confirmed cases.
Dr. Bittaye said this during the regular press briefing on the current situation report on COVID-19 in The Gambia, convened by health officials at the Ministry of Health in Banjul.
“All 5 new laboratory test results received from MRC The Gambia are negative, 5 additional people are taken into quarantine, and currently the country has 6 active cases and 1 probable case”, he explained.
He said there are 61 people on quarantine in one of the hotels in the Greater Banjul Area, and a total of 298 tests were conducted and 9 were positive, 254 people completed quarantine, 241 contacts traces and 310 people completed follow-ups.
He disclosed that the ministry reached a decision to test all persons under quarantine before discharging them, and that 61 are currently under quarantine.
In regard to case management, Dr. Bittaye said psychosocial support officers have been redeployed to the Risk Rapid Teams (RRT) to strengthen operations.
In the area of logistics, he said 500 gallons of bleach, 500 packs of soap powder, 1500 laundry soap bars, 3,200 handwashing liquid soap, 140 washing pans with chambers and 25 megaphones were received.
Additionally, he said his Ministry has received ten motorbikes from the UNFPA to support surveillance contact tracing, 300 overalls and 4,800 tablets of azithromycin, adding that all will be distributed accordingly.
He said they distributed 420 sprayers of 20 litres each, 820 rolls of red waste bags, 420 packets of surgical masks, 420 tins of chlorine, 1680 packets of surgical gowns and 2520 packets of soap (leftover items from the Ebola Response) to all health facilities.
He commended religious leaders, the private sector and individuals for their continued support in the fight against COVID-19 in the Gambia.
