DILI, April 14, 2021 (TATOLI) –Timor-Leste on Wednesday logged 17 new COVID-19 cases and 14 recoveries, The Integrated Management Covid-19 crisis Center said.
“The new cases are all 17 local cases -mostly in the capital Dili including ten men and seven women,” The Coordinator of Covid-19, CIGC, Rui de Araújo said at the virtual conference.
Araújo also said that since yesterday, the National Health Laboratory (LNS) has performed 445 tests, 393 following requests for authorization to leave Dili Municipality, 31 sentinel surveillance, one for contact screening, two for random screening, and 18 for international travel.
“The total number of tests was 125 today but nine did not meet the requirements underlined in the Government’s resolution,” Araújo, said.
He also pointed out that, in the Vera Cruz isolation center, including seven moderate cases another one in a serious condition. Of those infected, four are in the area of internal medicine, and the rest in obstetrics.
“In May 2020 and March 2021, LNS sent 70 positive samples for the genome sequence analysis at the Doherty Institute, University of Melbourne, Australia. According to the results, 99.6% of the samples contain the covid-19 variants that circulate in Indonesia, Australia, and Papua New Guinea”, he said.
Araújo also recalled that in a sample collected in December 2020, variant B.1.1.7 circulating in England was detected. After this result, the health team transferred the patient to isolation, where he ended up testing negative twice and has been discharged from the isolation.
However, the new South African and Brazilian variants were not found in any of the samples.
For this week, the joint team will use the antigen test as an instrument to facilitate the screening of covid-19.
“The RT-PCR test is maintained to define the final diagnosis of covid-19, but the antigen test will be used as an initial screening. The technical decision took place in March and the LNS is preparing to implement it”, he said.
With the new cases, Timor-Leste since march, 2020, Health Authority recorded a total of cases of 1,067 covid-19.
Also, yesterday the Authority reported 14 new recoveries, which increase the country’s total recoveries since march 2020 to 564
Journalist: Felicidade Ximenes
Editor: Cipriano Colo
