By Nelson Manneh
The Gambia has on Wednesday 21st April 2021 registered one new COVID-19 related death, bringing the total number of deaths since March 2020 to one hundred and seventy-one.
The decedent was a 51-year-old man, known with diabetes and hypertension with COVID-19, who until his demise was admitted in one of the COVID-19 treatment centres.
The country on the same day recorded four new cases, taking the total number of COVID-19 cases ever confirmed in the country to five thousand, seven hundred and eighty-eight.
50% of these tested for reasons of travelling and 25% being ill seeking health treatment to suspicion of COVID-19. The median age of the new cases is 40.
This is the 298th national situation report since the confirmation of the first case of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in The Gambia, on the 16th March 2020. The Gambia currently has no one in hotel quarantine, but have three hundred and sixty-one active cases.
Modou Njai, the Director of Health Promotion and Education at the Ministry of Health, said a total of one hundred and five new laboratory tests results were received from the National Public Health Lab and the Medical Research Council.
Of these, he said four new samples tested positive, representing a 3.8% positivity test rate.
“Thirteen COVID-19 patients were newly discharged from treatment centres, while 10 got discharged at least 10 days from the day they tested positive but evaded institutional isolation,” he said.
Director Njai said six COVID-19 patients are currently on oxygen therapy.