Cabo Verde has registered another 68 new coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours, 25 of them in the Praia jail, bringing the total since March 19 to 3,321 cases, revealed the Ministry of Health.
In a statement, the ministry said that virology laboratories have processed 408 samples since Tuesday, 49 of which were positive for the new coronavirus in the municipality of Praia, the country’s capital.
Of these, 25 cases were confirmed in the prison of São Martinho, says the Ministry of Health.
These new cases of Covid-19 in the largest prison in Cabo Verde, explained the National Health Director, Artur Correia, at a press conference, are the result of contact samples with other positive cases in the prison, collected on August 13, and mitigation measures are being taken and in view of the state of “overcrowding” in the prison.
“All the positive cases are separated in wings, to avoid contagion in wings that do not have positive cases,” said Artur Correia.
A reinforcement of health personnel in the prison is also underway, he added.
Also on the island of Santiago, new positive cases of covid-19 have been registered in the municipalities of Tarrafal (05), Santa Catarina (02) and Santa Cruz (02).
In addition, 10 new cases of the disease were confirmed on the island of Sal, the second main source of transmission in the archipelago after the municipality of Praia.
In the last 24 hours, 52 cases were also reported as recovered from the disease.
Cabo Verde now has an accumulated 3,321 cases of the disease since March 19, when the first patient was diagnosed with Covid-19.
Of this total, 841 cases remain active, 36 deaths and 2,442 have been reported as recovered, while two infected foreign citizens have been transferred to their countries of origin, according to data from the Ministry of Health.
