By Nelson Manneh
The Gambia has over the weekend registered two new COVID-19 related deaths, bringing the total number of coronavirus deaths, since March 2020, to one hundred and thirty-four.
Both newly deceased cases were males aged 70 and 91. Both had their samples collected and processed posthumously.
During the same weekend, the country recorded fifty-three new cases of the deadly coronavirus, bringing the total number of COVID-19 cases ever confirmed in the country to four thousand two hundred and thirty-seven.
The median age of the new cases is 37.
The bulk of the new cases got tested on account of either being intending travellers (60%) or being contacts of recently confirmed cases (15%).
This is the 260th national situation report since the confirmation of the first case of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in The Gambia, on 16th March 2020. The Gambia currently has 36 people in hotel quarantine and two hundred and seventeen active cases.
Modou Njai the Director of Health Promotion and Education at the Ministry of Health said eight hundred and thirteen new laboratory test results were received from the Medical Research Council and the National Public Health Lab.
Of these, Njai said fifty-three new samples tested positive, representing a 6.5% positivity test rate. Forty-seven high-risk contacts of recently confirmed cases were identified and their follow-up began in earnest, the 14-day follow-up for 81 patients has been completed.
“Seven COVID-19 patients were newly discharged from treatment centres, three asymptomatic patients who absconded a while ago are no longer considered to be infectious because a minimum of ten days have elapsed after they tested positive,” he said.