Niël Terblanché
THE vast majority of new COVID-19 cases in Namibia that have been occurring since last week have mainly been detected in and around Windhoek which makes the capital the epicentre of the current resurgence.
The Minister of Health and Social Services, Dr. Kalumbi Shangula while announcing the latest COVID-19 statistics said that a particular cause for concern is the high number of healthcare workers that had positive test results over the past week.
“We have recorded 25 healthcare workers that contracted COVID-19. Fifteen are from Windhoek district, five are from Karasburg district, two are from Khorixas district, and one each is from Grootfontein, Swakopmund, and Gobabis districts. This is very concerning as we have seen 83 healthcare workers getting infected with COVID-19 during the past seven days,” he said.
According to Dr. Shangula, the health ministry will investigate the circumstances that gave rise to the high number of infections amongst healthcare workers and stated that the appropriate action will be taken to curb the trend.
He said 267 people had positive test results from a test batch of 1 723 since Saturday. Of that number 190 people or 71% of the new cases are from the Windhoek health district. He indicated that the cases are sporadically distributed around the capital.
The gender distribution of the 267 new cases is 136 men and 132 women of which the youngest patient is a three-month-old baby and the oldest is an 80-year-old pensioner.
The health ministry registered 190 new cases in Windhoek, 14 in Khorixas, 13 in Lüderitz, nine in Otjiwarongo, six each in Karasburg and Swakopmund, five in Oshakati, four in Tsumeb, three each in Grootfontein, Okahandja, and Mariental, two each in Omaruru, Rehoboth, Rundu, and Gobabis while one person each in Walvis Bay, Keetmanshoop, and Aranos had positive results.
According to Dr. Shangula, 102 new recoveries were registered in Namibia over the past 24 hours with 75 from the Khomas Region, 25 from the Erongo Region, and two from the Omusati Region.
The number of active cases increased to 1 689 while the COVID-19 death toll in the country remained at 160.
