By Nelson Manneh
The Gambia has on Sunday 4th April 2021 registered fifty-nine (59) new cases of the coronavirus disease taking the total number of COVID-19 cases ever confirmed in the country to five thousand, five hundred and sixty-four.
58% of these newly confirmed cases tested for reasons of travelling and 37% being ill seeking health care due to suspicion of COVID-19. The median age of the new cases is 40.
No new COVID-19-related death has been registered, bringing the total number of cases recorded since March 2020 to one hundred and sixty-six deaths.
This is the 291st 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 one in hotel quarantine, but has two hundred and eighty-seven active cases.
Modou Njai, the Director of Health Promotion and Education at the Ministry of Health, said a total of one thousand three hundred and six new laboratory test results were received from the Medical Research Council and the National Public Health Lab.
Of these, he said fifty-nine new samples tested positive, representing a 4.5% positivity test rate.
“30 high-risk contacts of recently confirmed cases were identified. 13 COVID-19 patients were newly discharged from treatment centres, while 12 got discharged at least 10 days from the day they tested positive but evaded institutional isolation,” he said.
Director Njai said eight COVID-19 patients are currently on oxygen therapy.
