By Nelson Manneh
The Minister of Health Dr. Ahmadou Lamin Samateh has on Friday, 23rd April 2020, informed the press that the country is left with one active case as the other two Coronavirus patients have recovered from the pandemic.
“Over the past 24 hours six laboratory test results were received and all tested negative for COVID 19, of these two were repeat test results of active cases and we all know by now that a second consecutive negative test results for each of the cases means there is recovery to two second negative test results for two more cases. This means that two more people have now recovered from COVID 19.
Dr. Samateh made this announcement on the 34th National Situation Report since the confirmation of the first case of COVID 19 pandemic in the Gambia which was registered on the 17th March 2020.
“One new person (a Gambian) was intercepted and taken into quarantine from the Giboro border post, four people were discharged after testing negative for COVID-19 upon completing their quarantine mandates in one of our facilities,” he said.
The Health Minister said out of a total of one hundred and five (105) low-risk contacts of recently confirmed cases, ninety-nine (99) were successfully followed up.
“We now have ninety-five (95) people under quarantine and as a country, we have now only one active case and no probable case,” he said.
Dr. Samateh said he, however, wish to appeal that people should not be complacent as a country because there is only one case, that people still need to maintain the hygiene, the safe distancing and the wearing of the face mask that they have been advocating for.
“We also note that Senegal has recorded four hundred and seventy-nine (479) confirmed cases, two hundred and fifty-seven (257) recoveries and six deaths so far,” he said.
As a nation, Samateh said they conducted four hundred and one (401) tests and in summary ten (10) of those tests were positive out of the positive tests one person died, one active case is currently there and eight people recovered out of the ten cases.
“We are also pleased to inform you that two hundred and sixty-nine (269) people completed the quarantine, six hundred and forty-two (642) contacts have been traced so far, three hundred and ten (310) people completed their follow up,” he said.
The Health Minister said as a Ministry with their partners, they have been conducting daily coordination meetings at both the strategic and technical levels.
