By Nelson Manneh
The Gambia has on Friday 8th January, 2021, recorded five new cases of the deadly coronavirus, bringing the total number of COVID-19 cases ever confirmed in the country to three thousand eight hundred and thirty-eight.
The median age of the new cases is 60. Two of the new cases are married couple-both above 50. No new COVID-19 death has been recorded.
This is the 240th 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 no one in hotel quarantine. The country has thirty-six active cases.
Modou Njai, Director of Health Promotion and Education at the Ministry of Health, said two hundred and thirty-two new laboratory test results were received from the Medical Research Council and the National Public Health Lab.
Of these, he said five new samples tested positive, representing a 2.2% positivity test rate. Director Njai said three new tests returned undetermined.
“No new COVID-19 patients got discharged. One hundred and thirty-one high-risk contacts [of recently confirmed cases]have been identified and their follow-up began in earnest,” he said.
He said no person was newly taken into hotel quarantine and none was discharged.