By Nelson Manneh
The Gambia has on Tuesday 26th January, 2021, registered thirty-six new cases of the deadly coronavirus, bringing the total number of COVID-19 cases confirmed in the country to four thousand and eight.
The median age of the new cases is 34.5. Nine out of the thirty-six cases were mandatory tested for travelling into the country from hotspot countries with the new coronavirus strain.
This is the 254th national situation report since the confirmation of the first case of the novel disease in The Gambia, on the 16th March 2020.
The Gambia currently has twenty-six people under hotel quarantine and one hundred and fifty-five active cases.
Modou Njai, the Director of Health Promotion and Education at the Ministry of Health, said nine hundred and ninety-seven new laboratory test results were received from the Medical Research Council and the National Public Health Lab.
Of these, Njai said thirty- six new samples tested positive, representing a 3.6% positivity test rate.
He said five new tests returned undetermined.
Njai said eighteen high-risk contacts of recently confirmed cases have been identified and their follow-up began in earnest. He said the 14-day long follow-up for 60 has been completed.
“Nineteen new patients got discharged from the treatment centers. Whereas twenty-six people were newly taken in to quarantine, two hundred and sixty-nine were discharged,” he said.
Director Njai said three COVID-19 patients are currently on oxygen therapy.
