By Christian Conteh
The Gambia has in recent days recorded a spike in COVID-19 cases, a situation Gibril Gando Baldeh Senior Health Communications Officer in the country’s Health Ministry describes as a worrying development.
According to Baldeh, the whole world is seeing a rise in cases and The Gambia is no exception. “Gambia has entered the 4th wave,” he confirmed, adding that the country came out of the 3rd wave between June to July of 2021.
The rise in the number of cases Baldeh attributes to the festive season and the harmattan season. He says there were lots of social gatherings and no strict observance of COVID-19 protocols at most of these gatherings.
As for the harmattan season, he encouraged people with common colds, sore throat and other COVID like symptoms to get tested for COVID-19 and not just assume it is common cold.
“Fresh[common]cold should not be considered cold as usual, do not assume it is common cold, get tested for covid-19,” he encouraged.
Gibril Gando Baldeh noted that COVID-19 has infected 297 million people globally, claiming 5,481,337 lives.
In The Gambia Between the 1st to the 4th January 2022, the country recorded 416 COVID-19 cases. 118 cases on the 1st, 92 cases on the 2nd and 103 cases on the 3rd and 4th respectively.
