By Nelson Manneh
The Gambia has on Monday 18th January 2021 registered one COVID 19 related death, bringing the total number of deaths to 128.
The decedent was a 68-year-old woman, who until her demise, was hospitalized at a COVID-19 Treatment Center since January 16th. She had multiple comorbid conditions.
On the same day, the country registered twenty-three new cases of the deadly coronavirus, bringing the total number of COVID-19 cases ever confirmed in the country to three thousand nine hundred and thirty-three.
The median age of the new cases is 38.5.
Four of the newly confirmed cases were sought to be tested by virtue of being sick with flu-like symptoms, the other 19 are intending travellers who needed COVID-19 test certificates.
This is the 249th national situation report since the confirmation of the first case of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in The Gambia, on the 16th March 2020.The Gambia currently has ninety-six people under hotel quarantine, one hundred and six active cases.
Modou Njai the Director of Health Promotion and Education at the Ministry of Health said six hundred and forty-three new laboratory test results were received from the National Public Health Lab.
Of these, he said twenty-three new samples tested positive, representing a 3.6% test positivity rate.
He said four new tests returned undetermined.
“Twenty-seven high-risk contacts of recently confirmed cases have been identified and their follow-up began in earnest,” he said.
Njai said five new COVID-19 patients got discharged from the treatment centers. No one was taken into hotel quarantine.