#Headlines

Gambia confirms 14 covid-19 deaths

Aug 20, 2020, 11:54 AM | Article By: Arfang M.S. Camara

The Gambia’s coronavirus death cases continue to increase as the Health Ministry recorded 14 new deaths on Wednesday, bringing the total causalities to 77, a crude case-fatality ratio of 3.4%.

Health officials say that the 14 deaths did not occur in a single day as sampling dates spanned from the 14th to the 17th August (14th- 6 samples; and 4 samples apiece for the 15th and 17th).

“Samples of all the 14 (13 males and 1 female) were collected posthumously. The maiden age, at death, of the cases (12 positives and 2 undetermined) is 61 years (range: 26 to 90 years),” according to the ministry.

The ministry added that 172 new cases were registered, taking the total confirmed covid-19 cases to 2,288. The ministry explains that this represents a 33% test positivity rate (172 out of 524 total tests performed)

“The median age of the new cases is 36 years (range: 2 months to 94 years). Twenty new discharges effected from the treatment centres, bringing the cumulative number of recoveries to 435 (19.0% recovery rate).”

Health officials confirmed the 524 (five hundred and twenty-four) new laboratory test results received from MRCG and NPHL, noting that of these, 11 new tests returned indeterminant.

They added that whereas 5 persons were newly taken into quarantine, 14 new discharges were made.

The country currently has 302 people in quarantine, 1,776 active cases, 198 probable cases and a crude case-fatality ratio of 3.4%.

In a related development, the World Bank Group has provided laptops, printers and other gadgets to the NPHL to support the implementation of e-surveillance.

Meanwhile, the Senegalese Ministry of Health of yesterday reported 141 positive cases of covid-19, bringing total number of infections to 12,446; with 43 in serious condition, 7,877 recoveries, 258 deaths and 4 ,310 under treatment.