Senegal is experiencing an "unprecedented" surge in Covid-19 infections, the health ministry said on Wednesday, after reporting a new daily record of 733 cases.
The previous record, according to the
health ministry was 529 cases recorded on Sunday.
Senegal has seen relatively few COVID-19
related cases and deaths so far.
But like many African countries, it does
not have enough doses to vaccinate widely, leaving it vulnerable to fresh
surges.
“The situation is unprecedented. We have
never seen such an increase in cases,” said health ministry spokesman Mamadou
Ndiaye.
“Measures must be taken urgently to reverse
the trend… We hope that more energetic measures will be taken well ahead of
Tabaski”, Ndiaye said.
He was referring to the Muslim holiday, Eid
al-Adha that will be celebrated next week.
The holiday, the most important of the year
in Senegal, is celebrated with large family gatherings.
There are currently no measures in place to
restrict such events.
The ministry said more than 25% of the
2,854 tests carried out in the past 24 hours came back positive.
Senegal has reported 47,596 cases and 1,203
deaths since the start of the pandemic.
It has inoculated just 590,969 people out
of population of more than 16 million.
Ndiaye said that country was low on doses
but was expecting 165,000 Johnson & Johnson shots and 300,000 doses of
China’s Sinopharm vaccine.
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