Overview of the reported data for the ten days from 11 to 20 September 2020.
The trends for the 10-day period under focus were …
- From 11 to 20 September 2020, 1,121 new infections were announced, with an average of about 112 new infections announced per day;
- From 11 to 20 September 2020, 3,353 recoveries were announced , at an average of about 335 per day;
- For the 10-day period, 16 deaths were announced;
- And, of the 1,121 new infections announced during this period, 593 were in Windhoek, meaning almost 54% of new infections announced for the period were in Windhoek.
Daily new cases
The average number of daily new cases announced, of 112 cases per day, was much lower than for the previous 10-day period, from 1 to 10 September 2020, when the average daily number of new cases announced was 170, and lower than the daily average of 118 for the two-month period of July-August 2020.
The 20-day average, from 1 to 20 September 2020, of newly announced infections was 141 per day, which was much lower than the 31-day average for August 2020, when an average of 175 new infections were announced daily.
On 17 September 2020, Namibia surpassed the 10,000 recorded infections mark.
Testing
From 11 to 20 September 2020, 13,175 tests had been conducted, at an average rate of 1,317 tests per day. These figures are slightly lower than the 14,101 tests that had been conducted from 1 to 10 September 2020, at an average rate of 1,410 tests per day.
On 11 September 2020 it was announced that the Central Veterinary Laboratory would start testing for COVID-19, in collaboration with NIP, in order to improve turnaround times.
Infection demographics
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) Namibia situation report of 19 September 2020, the following:
- The 20 to 49-year-old bracket accounted for 73% of total confirmed cases;
- The 60-and-above age group accounted for 4.5% of total confirmed cases;
- The under-5 age bracket made up 2.3% of total confirmed cases.
Notable quote
“I would like to share with you a quote from social media which I deem to be relevant to our situation today. It describes the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. “The most severe pandemic in history was the Spanish Flu of 1918. It lasted for 2 years, in three waves with 500 million people infected and 50 million deaths. Most of the fatalities happened in the second wave. The people felt so bad about the quarantine and social distancing measures that when they were first lifted, the people rejoiced in the streets with abandon. In the coming weeks, the 2nd wave occurred with tens of millions dead. Let us not repeat the history in the time of Covid-19. Relaxation is only given by Government. Corona hasn’t given relaxation”. Let these words be our guide in the post State of Emergency period.”
– Dr Kalumbi Shangula, 18 September 2020