COVID-19: ‘Less than 0.03% of Sudanese infected’

The coronavirus (COVID-19) infection rate in Sudan is less than 0.03 per cent of the population. The health authorities are preparing a response to the spread of polio in the country.

The Ministry of Health reported that 61 new coronavirus cases were registered in the country as of Monday, August 17. Three patients died, and 31 recovered. 26 new patients were recorded in River Nile state, 24 in Khartoum, six in El Gezira, four in Northern State four, and one in Red Sea state. The total number of COVID-19 cases reached 12,546.

In a separate report, the Ministry of Health stated that the infection rate in Sudan is 28 cases per 100,000, which is less than 0.03 per cent of the population.

At least 64 coronavirus cases came from outside Sudan, the Ministry of Health reports. 4,037 cases are related to other cases. Over 8,200 cases have no known relationship to other cases (community spread).

59 per cent of the recorded coronavirus cases are men and 41 per cent are women. Most of them are elderly people. Of the people that died, 71 per cent was man and 29 per cent woman.

The Coronavirus Research Centre of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, USA, has tried to give an overview of the top-10 countries worst affected by COVID-19. Last week, the United Kingdom was on top of the list with 70 people dying because of COVID-19 per 100,000 inhabitants. Peru (65 deaths per 100,000), Chili (53), USA (50), Brazil (48), Mexico (41), Bolivia (31), Colombia (25) and Iran (22) followed.

The university follows the reports of the Sudanese Ministry of Health and states that there have been 808 ‘absolute confirmed deaths’ because of COVID-19 in Sudan (less than 2 per 100,000 inhabitants). The university warns that countries measure these statistics differently, which makes comparisons difficult.

Polio

The Ministry of Health announced this morning that it held a meeting at the Abdelhamid Ibrahim Centre in Khartoum with the Ministry of Labour and Social Development, representatives of United Nations agencies, and international organisations in Sudan “to reflect on a response to the polio epidemic”.

The Director of the Expanded Immunisation Programme reviewed the current situation of the epidemic at regional and country level, and the actions taken by the federal Ministry of Health so far.

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