By Nelson Manneh
The Gambia has recorded two new COVID-19-related deaths on Friday 26th March 2021, bringing the total number of COVID-19 related deaths recorded since March 2020, to one hundred and sixty-three.
The deceased were males aged 33 and 73 years old. Both were admitted as confirmed COVID-19 cases with hypertension and severe pneumonia.
The country on the same day also recorded sixty-two new cases bringing the total number of COVID-19 cases now confirmed in the country, to five thousand, three hundred and sixty-five.
30% of these tested because of travel, and 49% were tested after being ill and seeking health due to suspicion of COVID-19. 15% were cases of routine respiratory disease surveillance systems and 4% were contacted cases with the median age of the new cases put at 39 years.
This is the 285th 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 two hundred and twelve active cases already.
According to Modou Njai, the Director of Health Promotion and Education at the Ministry of Health, out of a total of seven hundred and six new laboratory test results received from the Medical Research Council and the National Public Health Lab., sixty-two new samples tested positive, representing 8.8 % positivity test rate.
“Sixty-seven high-risk contacts of recently confirmed cases were identified. Four COVID-19 patients were newly discharged from treatment centres, while 60 were discharged at least 10 days from the day they tested positive and evaded institutional isolation,” he said.
He said, four COVID-19 patients are currently on oxygen therapy.