By Nelson Manneh
The Gambia has on Tuesday 23rd February 2021 registered one COVID-19 related death, bringing the number of deaths since March 2020 to one hundred and forty-seven.
The decedent was a 25-year-old female- who was a diabetic patient.
On the same day, the country registered twenty-four new cases, bringing the total number of COVID-19 cases ever confirmed in the country to four thousand six hundred and forty.
The median age of the new cases is 33.5.
This is the 268th national situation report since the confirmation of the first case of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in The Gambia, on 16th March 2020. The Gambia currently has thirty-four people in hotel quarantine and four hundred and twenty-three active cases.
Modou Njai, the Director of Health Promotion and Education at the Ministry of Health, said a total of three hundred and sixty-five new laboratory test results were received from the National Public Health Lab and the Medical Research Council.
Of these, Director Njai said twenty-four new samples tested positive, representing a 6.5 % positivity test rate.
He said forty high-risk contacts [of recently confirmed cases]were identified and their follow-up began in earnest.
“34 people were newly taken into hotel quarantine while five COVID-19 patients were newly discharged from treatment centres,” he said.
He said eleven COVID-19 patients are currently on oxygen therapy.