By Nelson Manneh
Dr. Mustapha Bittaye, the Director of Health Services at the Ministry of Health on Sunday 21st June 2020, confirmed the registration by the country’s Health Authorities of the second COVID-19 related death in the Gambia.
Case number 37 as it is referred to, was an 80-year-old male Gambian marabout who recently returned to the country from Senegal; that he evaded quarantine and made it to his destination in Manjai Kunda, where he stayed for a week before reporting to the Kanifing General Hospital with symptoms similar to that of COVID-19, on the 18th of June and was pronounced dead, two hours after arrival.
His sample was said to have been collected on the 18th of June after he passed away, and a positive result came out on the 19th.
If readers can recall, the first COVID-19 related death in the country was registered on the 20th of March 2020, after a 70-year-old Bangladeshi national passed away. The Gambia so far has registered a total of 37 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 23 recoveries, 2 deaths and 12 active cases. Currently the country has 250 persons under quarantine with 2 probable cases.
“All but one of the 129 new laboratory test results received, returned negative. 22 persons were newly taken into quarantine. 4 new people were discharged after testing negative for COVID-19 upon completion of their mandatory quarantine period,” Dr. Bittaye said; that the newly quarantined were picked from different locations after it was learnt that they have a recent travel history to a country with ongoing community transmission
64% of the confirmed cases are males while about 64% of the confirmed cases are below the age of 40.
