No community transmission of Covid-19
04 June 2020 | Health
ELLANIE SMIT
WINDHOEK
Health ministry executive director Ben Nangombe has confirmed there has still been no community transmission of the coronavirus in Namibia.
He said by Tuesday, 4 009 coronavirus tests had been completed. “This has thus far not shown a positive result and therefore highlights why the ministry says there has not been any community transmission so far. All the cases reported have been imported cases,” Nangombe said. On Monday alone, more than 200 tests were done, he said.
Nangombe stressed that the ministry is increasing efforts to do more targeted testing and to test and quarantine all truck drivers who have left the country and returned.
He said the majority of the 25 positive coronavirus cases in the country emanated from quarantine facilities.
Nangombe said only a few positive cases saw patients visiting health professionals or facilities to get tested. Namibia's first two positive cases, a Romanian couple, presented themselves to a medical facility with coughs in middle March after being screened at the airport.
Three more patients then presented themselves to health practitioners and tested positive, while case six was tested in South Africa and, after travelling to Namibia, received the results here.
Underlying condition
Nangombe pointed out all of the latest cases were tested under quarantine, except for the 63-year-old Namibian man who arrived in the country via sea on a vessel.
According to the executive director, the man has an underlying medical condition and complained of shoulder pain to his general practitioner, who gave him a prescription he then collected at a pharmacy.
After being released from the vessel, the man went home to self-quarantine without seeing a doctor or being tested, and later went to see his doctor with the same complaint of chronic pain.
WINDHOEK
Health ministry executive director Ben Nangombe has confirmed there has still been no community transmission of the coronavirus in Namibia.
He said by Tuesday, 4 009 coronavirus tests had been completed. “This has thus far not shown a positive result and therefore highlights why the ministry says there has not been any community transmission so far. All the cases reported have been imported cases,” Nangombe said. On Monday alone, more than 200 tests were done, he said.
Nangombe stressed that the ministry is increasing efforts to do more targeted testing and to test and quarantine all truck drivers who have left the country and returned.
He said the majority of the 25 positive coronavirus cases in the country emanated from quarantine facilities.
Nangombe said only a few positive cases saw patients visiting health professionals or facilities to get tested. Namibia's first two positive cases, a Romanian couple, presented themselves to a medical facility with coughs in middle March after being screened at the airport.
Three more patients then presented themselves to health practitioners and tested positive, while case six was tested in South Africa and, after travelling to Namibia, received the results here.
Underlying condition
Nangombe pointed out all of the latest cases were tested under quarantine, except for the 63-year-old Namibian man who arrived in the country via sea on a vessel.
According to the executive director, the man has an underlying medical condition and complained of shoulder pain to his general practitioner, who gave him a prescription he then collected at a pharmacy.
After being released from the vessel, the man went home to self-quarantine without seeing a doctor or being tested, and later went to see his doctor with the same complaint of chronic pain.
Classifieds