Health Protection Agency HPA has confirmed that the COVID-19 global pandemic is spreading at a much faster rate compared to 3 weeks before.
In a tweet, HPA said that doubling time is the number of days it takes for the number of cases to double from the current number.
The doubling time shows a 3 times reduction within the last 3 weeks (from 116 days in the last week of (June 24-30) to 39 days in the week (8-14 Jul) which confirmed that the illness was spreading at an alarming rate.
HPA also said that in the week of 8-14 July, 91 (30%) of 300 cases have no link to any existing cluster. It said that this indicated that there is wide community spread.
The Agency stated that the week of 8-14 July reported the highest number of hospital bed usage at 17%.
It said that this showed the increase in cases that needs to be hospitalized for treatment.
HPA added that patients who are above the age of 60 & others with comorbid conditions are hospitalized with positive results.
HPA also said that from 8-14 July, a total of 891 samples have been taken from flu clinics and that from it 76 samples tested positive for COVID19.
This is 9 percent of the samples taken which indicated an increase in the positivity rate.
In the last ten days, a total of 413 individuals have tested positive for COVID-19 and most of these have been confirmed as locals.
The total number of positive cases now stands at 2930 in the country.
On the 1st of July, the government implemented the third phase of the lockdown ease, which saw schools and government office reopened as well as communal prayers resumed in mosques across the capital city.
