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ETHIOPIA-COVID-CASES
Ethiopia’s COVID-19 cases near 21,000
ADDIS ABABA, Aug. 6,2020 (BSS/XINHUA) — Ethiopia’s confirmed COVID-19 cases reached 20,900 after 564 new COVID-19 positive cases were confirmed on Thursday, the Ethiopian Ministry of Health said.
The Ethiopian Ministry of Health in a statement issued on Thursday revealed that from a total of 9,068 medical tests that were conducted within the last 24 hours, 564 of them tested positive for COVID-19, eventually bringing the total number of positive cases to 20,900.
The ministry also disclosed that nine patients succumbed to illnesses related to the COVID-19 pandemic on Thursday, bringing the total number of COVID-19 related deaths in the East African country to 365.
According to the Ethiopian Ministry of Health, the number of recoveries is also increasing as some 9,027 patients who tested positive for COVID-19 had so far recovered, including 429 in the last 24 hours period.
The ministry also noted that a total of 11,506 COVID-19 patients are still undergoing medical treatment, out of which 170 are in severe condition.
Amid the rapid spread of the virus, Ethiopia had on Sunday officially launched a nationwide one-month-long testing campaign, which the Ethiopian government said “will determine the next steps to undertake in the new year,” which will start on September 11.
The Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed also said on Sunday that “increased testing is key to knowing the trend of COVID-19 nationally to enable effective decision-making on various fronts.”
Ethiopia, Africa’s second-most populous nation with about 107 million people, confirmed its first case of COVID-19 on March 13, and has so far conducted some 468,814 COVID-19 medical tests, according to the Ethiopian Ministry of Health.
BSS/XINHUA/IJ/1040 hrs