WALVIS BAY - Namibia recorded another Covid-19 death, bringing to eight the virus deaths in the country while a record of 88 new positive cases were registered yesterday.
 The Minister of Health and Social Services, Dr Kalumbi Shangula, yesterday said the latest death is that of a 47-year-old man with known underlying health conditions who was admitted at the Walvis Bay state hospital on 21 July.  

“As a procedure, he was tested and his test came back positive on Thursday. His condition became critical and he was transferred to the Welwitschia private hospital for further treatment but he died shortly after being admitted at the intensive care unit,” Shangula stated during his weekend update.

According to Shangula, 62 of the new cases are from Walvis Bay, 19 from Swakopmund, while five are from Windhoek. Keetmanshoop and Mariental recorded one case each. This brings the total number of cases to 1 775 of which 1 692 are active.
The minister also indicated that three people recovered and were discharged while 701 people are currently in quarantine.
Ironically, 60% of people who tested positive for Covid-19 at Walvis Bay were infected locally but still live within the community. The Walvis Bay Covid-19 emergency operation centre officer, Aktofel Kwedhi last Thursday indicated the lack of isolation facilities makes it harder to isolate all people that tested positive for Covid-19.

There are over 1000 confirmed cases at the town, which is currently the virus epicentre, however, isolation facilities available have less than 600 beds.
“Additionally, the quarantine facilities currently available at Walvis Bay have less than 400 beds while the contacts of confirmed cases who are in need of these facilities are more than 10 000,” he explained.

“This situation is worrisome and this means the implementation of the universal strategic frameworks is not adequately addressing the crisis the region finds itself in. That is why we have developed the risk response and intervention plan, aimed at dealing with the situation in Walvis Bay particularly. 
The plan will involve the clustering of areas into smaller areas for health and the security cluster, for effective management. We will also be looking at repatriating students and teachers as well as community members that would like to go back to other regions. This will all be done under the guidelines and regulations currently in place, he explained on Thursday.

Covid burials
Meanwhile, four people who died due to Covid-19 were laid to rest on Saturday at Walvis Bay. 
Two burials took place at the Kuisebmond cemetery while two others were buried in town and Narraville respectively.
The decision to utilise the existing cemeteries for Covid-19 deaths was taken last week after Narraville residents protested against the new cemetery where the first Covid-19 deceased was laid to rest.
– edeklerk@nepc.com.na