Niël Terblanché
THE devastating effects of the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic currently sweeping over Namibia have seen that the death toll increased with 88 over the past week alone.
The cumulative number of deaths that have been recorded since the start of the pandemic 15 months ago, currently stands at 912 and is set to rise even further as the number of people receiving critical care in various intensive care units has increased over the past 24 hours.
The Minister of Health and Social Services, Dr. Kalumbi Shangula announced that seven more people died as a result of being infected with SARS-CoV2.
He said that one of the seven people that died received the first dose of the vaccine, three were not vaccinated and the vaccination status of the three remaining deceased persons could not be confirmed.
Dr. Shangula also announced that the infection rate is again climbing sharply after 650 people received positive test results from a specimen batch of 2 328 on Sunday. The number constitutes an infection rate of 28%.
At 263, the Khomas Region recorded 40% of the new cases while the Hardap Region recorded 100 new cases, the Erongo Region 77, the Otjozondjupa and Omaheke regions 46 each, the Oshana Region 33, the Ohangwena Region 25, the Oshikoto Region 21, the Kavango East Region 17, the Zambezi Region nine, the Omusati Region six, the Karas Region five while the Kavango West and Kunene region each recorded one new case.
The fact that only 150 people were declared healthy means that the number of active cases is still increasing.
The health minister said that of the 5 752 active cases, 321 have been hospitalized and of that number, 57 are currently receiving critical care in the various intensive care units in hospitals across Namibia.
