Sunday May 3, 2020
Ethiopia Coronaviurs updates from the Ministry of Health
Ethiopian Public Health Institute called up on the pubic not to be lured by the numbers and continue to practice prevention measures including social distancing. No Coronavirus cases reported on May 2.
Ethiopia’s Ministry of Health announced on Saturday that 2016 samples from suspected individuals were tested for Coronavirus disease over the past twenty-four hours and no positive case was found.
Most of the people tested are either people with a recent travel history or people who have been exposed or potentially exposed to COVID 19 infected persons.
The ministry also said that three more patients have fully recovered from the diseases and been discharged from COVID 19 patient’s treatment centers. The total number of recovery cases is now 69 while the total number of COVID 19 confirmed cases (which currently includes active cases, recoveries, and deaths) is 133.Fifty-nine patients are currently in the designated treatment centers in the country. No patient is in the Intensive Care Unit at this point which suggests high chances of many more recovery cases in the weeks to come.
However, Ethiopian Public Health Institute is calling on the public not to be tricked by the numbers of Coronavirus cases in the country and continue to practice preventive measures including social distancing.
So far, Ethiopia has tested a total of 20,770 cases of Coronavirus cases in more than 12 testing centers in the country. The aim is to test 4000 cases per day and plants to open more laboratories. On Friday, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced that it will provide Ethiopia with 411 million US dollars to support the fight against the Coronavirus case in the country.
The rate of infections is higher in some of the neighboring countries. For example, Somalia reported on Monday this week confirmed 480 infections from a total of 764 people tested for COVID 19, as reported by Aljazeera. On Saturday, 70 more cases have been confirmed.
Illegal entry from Somalia and Djibouti has been a challenge in the past few weeks although land borders to and from these countries were closed for over a month.
Ethiopia’s Somali regional state announced this week that the border control is improved and all those arriving from neighboring countries are quarantined for two weeks.