By Nelson Manneh
The Gambia has on Monday 22nd March 2021 registered forty-eight new cases of the deadly coronavirus diseases, bringing the total number of COVID-19 cases ever confirmed in the country to five thousand, three hundred and three.
63% of these tested for reasons of travelling, 19% being ill seeking health attention due to suspicion of COVID-19, 7% routine respiratory disease surveillance systems and 11% contacted a case. The median age of the new cases is 39.
No new COVID-19-related deaths registered and the total number of deaths since March 2020 is now one hundred and sixty-one.
This is the 284th national situation report since the confirmation of the first case of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in The Gambia, on the 16th March 2020. The Gambia currently has no person in hotel quarantine and two hundred and sixteen active cases.
Modou Njai, the Director of Health Promotion and Education at the Ministry of Health, said a total of six hundred and forty-five new laboratory test results were received from the Medical Research Council and the National Public Health Lab.
Of these, Director Njai said forty-eight new samples tested positive, representing 11% positivity test rate. No high-risk contacts of recently confirmed cases were identified.
“One COVID-19 patient was newly discharged from a treatment centre, while 50 got discharged at least 10 days from the day they tested positive but evaded institutional isolation,” he said.
Njai said six COVID-19 patients are currently on oxygen therapy.
