National Assembly Suspends Sessions Amid coronavirus outbreak

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By: Kebba AF Touray

The Speaker of the National Assembly Mariama Jack Denton has suspended the first session of the 2020 Legislative sessions of the National Assembly.

The first session started Monday 16 March 2020 and was suspended after two days of sittings.

She said the move is line with the president’s decision to suspend all public gatherings, amidst the coronavirus outbreak. The disease she said has been declared by the World Health Organization as a global pandemic.

Speaker Denton said, “Relying on section 13 of the revised standing Orders of the National Assembly, I wish to declare sessions suspended till further”.

“We trying to work out other modalities and am sure the Office of Clerk will inform Honourable Members because there is a need for effective sensitization in our constituencies”, she added.

Readers would recall that the Gambia’s Health Minister, Amadou Samateh, on Tuesday evening in a televised statement, confirmed the first case of COVID-19, in the Gambia.
Samateh has highlighted measures that have been put in place to prevent the disease from spreading in the Gambia.

The measures include orientation for the border health officials, formation of the National Health Emergency Committee, and Public Health Emergency Committee, to coordinate preventive measures in the Gambia. It also includes equipment of the sanatorium to handle cases of coronavirus.