Ethiopia COVID-19 Cases Surge to 429

Addis Ababa, May 22/2020( ENA) Ethiopia coronavirus cases surge to 429 as Ministry of Health announced 30 new infections on Friday. 

The ministry on its daily update revealed that 30 new persons had tested positive for COVID-19 from 3645 laboratory tests conducted in the last 24 hours.

All the individuals are Ethiopian nationals, the ministry stated adding that 26 patients are males and 4 are females ranging from 15-60 years old, the ministry said.

Among the patients 9 of them have recent travel history and the other 4 with no travel history while 17 patients had succumbed to the virus due to contacts with confirmed cases.

Out of the 30 cases, 18 were identified in the capital Addis Ababa, 4 in Oromia, in Tigray and Afar each 3 as well as 2 cross boarder truck drivers.

Five patients have also recovered, bringing the total recoveries to 128.  

On the contrary, 294 patients are on treatment but no patient is currently under Intensive Care Unit.

The spread of COVID-19 have entered a new stage of “community transmission” across the country as infections were currently identified with no travel history to abroad or any traced contact with already confirmed COVID-19 cases.

Ethiopia, which started thermal screenings and mentorship of passengers about three weeks after the novel coronavirus was officially reported in China, has conducted 73,164 total laboratory tests since mid March from its 26 laboratories at the moment.