Niël Terblanché
AFTER one of the darkest weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic where 88 people lost their lives as a result of being infected with SARS-CoV2 in Namibia, the trend seems to be continuing with eight more deaths that were recorded on Monday.
The Minister of Health and Social Services, Dr. Kalumbi Shangua announced the latest statistics and said that four of the deceased patients were not vaccinated while the vaccination stats of the remaining four could not be determined.
The eight new COVID-19 fatalities brought the cumulative number of deaths recorded in Namibia since the start of the pandemic in March 2020 to 920.
Dr. Shangula stated that 385 new samples from a test batch of 1 152 were confirmed positive. He added that the positivity ratio of 33% is extremely high.
At 153, the Khaoms Region recorded 40% of the new cases while the Erongo Region recorded 74 new cases, the Otjozondjua Region 53, the Hardap Region 42, the Kunene Region 13, the Zambezi Region 12, the Kavango East Region nine, the Oshikoto and Karas region each recorded seven, the Oshana Region six, the Omaheke Region five, the Ohangwena Region three, and the Kavango West Region recorded one new case.
According to the health minister, 358 people were declared healthy after being evaluated by health officials.
He said that there are currently 5 771 active cases of 315 are hospitalized. Of the hospitalized patients 63 are receiving critical care in various intensive care units of hospitals across Namibia.
According to Dr. Shangula, 76 259 people received the first shot of the vaccination while 11 608 people in Namibia have been fully vaccinated.
