By Nelson Manneh
Health authorities on Friday, 8th May confirmed two new positive cases of Coronavirus. This brought the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in The Gambia to twenty (20).
Both confirmed cases are in their twenties and for the first time since the outbreak in The Gambia in March, a case has been registered from the West Coast Region.
“The other one has been taken into Quarantine for being a close contact of the 11th case, while the confirmed COVID 19 patient in West Coast Region was taken in to quarantine on account of recently returning to the country from Senegal” said Dr. Mustapha Bittaye the Director of Health Services at the Ministry of Health.
So far, The Gambia has conducted one thousand one hundred and six tests in which twenty have been confirmed as positive cases of the virus. Three hundred and twenty-nine people have completed quarantine. Seven hundred and thirty-five people were traced and three hundred and ten have completed follow-ups
The Coronavirus Pandemic began in China sometime in 2019 and spread worldwide. The World Health Organization has declared it a pandemic and countries are struggling to curb the virus.
Globally, nearly four million cases of the virus have been reported with two hundred and seventy thousand deaths as a consequent of the virus while over a million have recovered from the virus.
Senegal, a country that surrounds The Gambia on three sides recorded a thousand and four hundred cases with five hundred and sixty-two recoveries and thirteen deaths.
Dr. Bittaye said one of the previously reported probable cases has tested negative after being re-sampled, but he is still required to complete the mandatory quarantine period.
“Out of a total of seventy-seven (77) test results received, seventy-five (75) were negative and two tested positive for COVID 19,” he said.
Director Bittaye said five persons were newly taken into quarantine, three of them were from Central River Region (CRR) and the other two were from Serrekunda, all are close contacts of confirmed cases.
“Six people were discharged after testing negative for COVID 19 upon completion of the mandatory quarantine period,” he said.
Bittaye added that follow-up period for twenty-two (22) low-risk contacts have elapsed without any of them exhibiting any symptoms of COVID 19 and as such, they will no longer be followed.
