COVID-19: Ethiopia Records 386 More  Infections, 16 Fatalities

ADDIS ABABA – Ethiopia has registered 386 new novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) infections and 16 more fatalities on Thursday, according to the Ministry of Health report.

The new positive cases were confirmed after the country conducted a total of 6, 578 people in the past twenty-four hours.

A further 16 patients have also lost their lives due to the acute respiratory disease caused by Coronavirus, taking the national death toll to 6, 428.

The number of severely ill patients has dropped by 24 while the active cases tally slightly increased as compared to the previous day.

There are now 486 seriously sick patients, says the report that puts the active case count at 18, 892. It also says 365 patients have recuperated from Covid-19, taking the recovery tally to 338, 776.

The East African nation recorded its first Covid-19 case in March, 2020. Since then, it has confirmed a total of 364, 098 cases after testing nearly 3.7 million people.

Vaccination Drive

Health officials are urging the public to observe the health protocols put in place to tackle the pandemic including wearing face masks while pushing ahead with a nationwide immunization campaign.

In the past 24-hours, more than 95, 000 doses of Covid-19 vaccine have been administered in the county, according to the Ministry.

Ethiopia launched the nationwide vaccination drive on March 13, 2021 – a week after its health Ministry obtained 2.2mln AstraZeneca vaccines from the Covax Facility.

To date, authorities have fully vaccinated close to 3.42 people against the virus while offering a total of 4, 584, 965 doses of vaccine.

Apart from AstaraZeneca, the vaccination campaign involves a range of vaccines including a one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine as well as Sinopharm.

The Ministry of health plans to inoculate as many as 22 million people against Covid-19 by January amid challenges African countries face to get access to crucial commodities as well as vaccines