By Nelson Manneh
Health Authorities have on Friday 16th July 2021 reported that sixteen (16) COVID-19 patients are currently on oxygen therapy.
Eighty-nine (89) new cases were also registered, taking the total number of COVID-19 cases ever confirmed in the country to six thousand six hundred and ten.
Of the 74 cases with known reasons for testing, 44 (59.5%) tested for travelling while 11 (14.9%) for suspicion of COVID-19 after being sick.
The cases are 52 males and 37 females with a median age of 36 years (Range: 4 – 81years).
No new COVID-19-related deaths were registered, bringing the total number of deaths since March 2020 to 188.
This is the 342nd national situation report since the confirmation of the first case of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in The Gambia, on the 16th March 2020. Currently, no one is in hotel quarantine, but the country has four hundred and thirty-one active cases.
Modou Njai, the Director of Health Promotion and Education, said three hundred and three new laboratory test results were received from the Medical Research Council and the National Public Health Lab.
Of these, he said eighty-nine tested positives representing a 29.3% positivity test rate.
Sixteen (16) new COVID-19 patients were newly discharged from treatment centres, while 13 got discharged at least 10 days from the day they tested positive but evaded institutional isolation. No new contacts were traced.
As of 25th June 2021, 31,254 and 12,303 people received the 1st and 2nd doses of AstraZeneca vaccine respectively, bringing the total number ever vaccinated to 43,557. So far, 11,218 (798 New) Rapid Diagnostic Tests were conducted at the Airport for travelers as of 12th July 2021.
Of these, only three (3) tested positive for both RDT and PCR. They were all treated and discharged.