By Nelson Manneh
The Gambia has on Tuesday 20th April 2021 registered fifty-one new cases of COVID-19 taking the total number of cases ever confirmed in the country to five thousand, seven hundred and eighty-four.
80% of these tested for reasons of travelling and 7% being ill seeking health care due to suspicion of COVID-19. The median age of the new cases is 34.
No new COVID-19-related death was registered, bringing the total number of deaths since March 2020 to one hundred and seventy.
This is the 297th 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 has three hundred and eighty-nine active cases.
Modou Njai the Director of Health Promotion and Education at the Ministry of Health said a total of one thousand and eighty-five new laboratory tests results were received from the Medical Research Council and National Public Health Lab.
Of these, Director Njai said fifty-one new samples tested positive, representing a 4.7% positivity test rate.
He said four COVID-19 patients were newly discharged from treatment centres, while 11 got discharged at least 10 days from the day they tested positive, but evaded institutional isolation.
Njai said five COVID-19 patients are currently on oxygen therapy.