Ethiopia COVID 19 Update April 23: No Positive Case from 965 Suspected Samples

Lia Tadesse, Minister for Health. Photo credit : ENA
Borkena
April 23, 2020

For the first time in several weeks, Ethiopia’s Ministry of Health reported on Thursday that all the samples tested to determine COVID 19 cases showed negative results. 

Samples from 965 individuals were tested in the past 24 hours, according to the Ministry of Health. From experience in the past few weeks, those who get tested are usually individuals with travel histories who are in quarantine for two weeks after they arrived in the country.

Until April 22, confirmed COVID 19 cases in the country were 116. Twenty-one patients have fully recovered from the epidemic, and no patient is in the Intensive Care Unit at this point.  Only three patients have lost the battle to COVID 19

So far a total of 10,736 suspected cases have been tested, as reported by the Ministry of Health.

Currently, 90 patients are getting treatment in the designated COVID 19 hospitals in the country. 

The latest update from Lia Tadesse, the Minister for Health, brought about optimism among many Ethiopians.

It has been weeks since Ethiopia declared a state of emergency to enforce COVID 19 prevention measures including social distancing – a preventive measure that proved to be challenging. After the state of emergency, security personnel are granted temporary power (lasts five months) to enforce the rules.

Weeks before legislating emergency measures, Ethiopia had closed all its land borders with six neighboring countries.  However, the border with Djibouti and Somalia was apparently loose. People entered Ethiopia illegally without being screened for COVID 19, and they did not honor the mandatory two weeks quarantine either.

Commander of the Eastern Division of the Ethiopian Defense Force had a consultation with Somaliland military authorities to end the situation.