BUJUMBURA November 4th (ABP) – Over the past 7 days, the daily average of new Covid-19 cases is 17, down from the previous 7 days, with an average of 30 community cases per day, according to a situation report on the response to the pandemic due to the coronavirus sars-cov-2 (Covid-19) published on October 31, 2021.
In total, there is a 38% decrease in the cumulative number of new community cases reported (131 cases) compared to the previous 7 days (213 cases).
Over the past 28 days, there has been a drop in the positivity rate with a weekly average of 1.68 cases of Covid-19 per 100 tests performed.
Since July 21, 2021 (start of resurgence), the average weekly positivity rate has been 3.06 cases per 100 tests performed, below the alert threshold of 5%. This rate was 1.69 confirmed cases per 100 tests performed since the start of 2021.
The positivity rate in people screened in the last 24 hours (October 30, 2021) is 0.63 cases of Covid-19 per 100 tests performed. In total, since July 21, 2021 (date of the start of the resurgence), the daily average of the number of new community cases of Covid-19 reported is 133 cases while this daily average was 22 cases so far since the start. of the year 2021.
Regarding screening, the number of people screened has also fallen by 13%, with a total of 13,423 tests carried out over the past seven days against a cumulative 15,425 tests carried out previously. Likewise, the number of new people screened in the last 24 hours (1,428 tests) has decreased by 32% compared to the previous 24 hours. The nine new community cases reported in the past 24 hours were detected in six different districts out of the 48 in the country, and 15 districts recorded zero cases. In the last seven days, a total of 142 new cases were reported in 25 out of 48 districts (52.08%).
The weekly screening rate continues to decline due to the gradual decline in the attendance rate at screening sites across the country. In the last 3 weeks, the recorded weekly screening rate is 12.4 tests per 10,000 inhabitants compared to 24.4 tests per 10,000 inhabitants in the previous 3 weeks. Overall, the weekly screening rate has improved since the start of 2021, with an average of 13.8 tests per 10,000 inhabitants compared to 1.7 tests per 10,000 inhabitants in 2020.
Among the 1,428 new tests carried out in the last 24 hours, more than 3/4 are made up of inbound and outbound travelers (1,192 tests, or 83.5%) against a total of 236 tests (16.5%) carried out within people.
Note that in national aggregation since the appearance of the first case of Covid-19 in Burundi (March 31, 2020), out of 846,035 people have been screened, 20,087 have tested positive, 19,778 are cured and 14 have died, i.e., a rate of national positivity of 2.37%, 99.51% cure and a fatality rate of 0.07%, according to the Ministry of Public Health and the Fight against AIDS.
As challenges, we report the mobilization of resources to finance the new national response plan against Covid-19 for the period from October 2021 to March 2022 and the vaccination deployment plan finalized, the active search for suspected cases. , contacts of confirmed and probable cases for an appropriate follow-up, intensification of communication and sensitization of the population to respect the barrier measures put in place within the populations and for voluntary screening in order to detect cases early in the community and interrupt the chain of transmission. The other challenge is the lack of control of stocks of screening inputs at the national level to anticipate stockouts.
The Ministry of Public Health and the Fight against AIDS recommends strengthening communication for the implementation of public health and voluntary screening measures, contact tracing and follow-up, compliance with barrier measures, as well as adequate care. It also recommends strengthening community surveillance of Covid-19, through community health workers, in tracing and monitoring contacts, and strengthening daily monitoring of the state of stocks to anticipate shortages and ensure the constant availability of laboratory inputs for screening in all districts.