Nine new COVID-19 cases reported
At least nine new positive cases of COVID-19 have been registered in the last 48 hours, the National Taskforce on COVID-19 has revealed.
According to the COVID-19 update released on Thursday, the task force confirmed that nine tests were confirmed positive out of the 653 samples tested.
The report indicates that the total number of tests done to date is 351, 877, with nine new cases and zero deaths confirmed in the last 48 hours.
The number of cases under follow-up is 3,448; the cumulative number of recoveries is 13,507, and there are 138 cumulative cases of death.
However, as of Wednesday, the task force had registered 11 new cases out of the 657 samples that were tested in the laboratory.
According to a COVID-19 weekly update by the Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization, there is a COVID-19 cases due to a lack of testing from GeneXpert sites. This is due to a shortage of cartridges in Nimule, resulting in a low number of cases and a low positivity rate.
The majority of new cases were from pre-travel screening in Juba (44.9 per cent) and alerts through the hotline (28.6 per cent).
Most testing sites are now using antigen rapid diagnostics test (AgRDT). Also, there has been an increase in positivity rate from AgRDT to 4.6 per cent in the week ending March 13, 2022, compared to 2.8 per cent the preceding week, as well as a consistent high positivity rate from health facilities in refugee settlements Hakima Yacoub and Pamir.
It stated that a total of 551 health facilities are now conducting COVID-19 vaccinations in 80 counties. The highest COVID-19 vaccination coverage was reported from both Western and Northern Bahr el Ghazal States, with 8.8 per cent of their populations fully vaccinated, followed by Central Equatoria State with 5.0 per cent and Unity State with 4.5 per cent.
There is supportive supervision ongoing in 270 health facilities in 70 counties, consistently finding an urgent need to increase mobile teams for outreach, strengthen community engagement and social mobilisation.
The partners declared that there is no shortage of vaccines and no doses at risk of expiring.
