By Nelson Manneh
Health Officers have over the weekend said twenty-eight thousand, five hundred and ninety people have received the COVID-19 vaccines as of the 23rd of May 2021.
They also said 4,576 Rapid Diagnostic Tests were conducted at the Airport for travellers as of 23rd May 2021. Of these, only 2 tested positive.
The Gambia has also registered twelve new cases, taking the total number of COVID-19 cases ever confirmed in the country to five thousand nine hundred and ninety. 89% tested for reasons of travelling and 11% were ill seeking healthcare due suspicion of COVID-19. The median age of the cases is 41 years. No new COVID-19-related death was registered, bringing the total number of deaths since March 2020 to one hundred and seventy-eight.
This is the 320th 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 forty-five active cases.
Modou Njai, the Director of Health Promotion and Education at the Ministry of Health, said a total of five hundred and eighty-six new laboratory test results were received from the National Public Health Lab and from the Medical Research Council.
Of these, he said twelve new samples tested positive, representing a 2.0% positivity test rate. Three COVID-19 patients were newly discharged from treatment centres, while 10 got discharged at least 10 days from the day they tested positive but evaded institutional isolation. He said three COVID-19 patients are currently on oxygen therapy.