Bangladesh man is Gambia’s first coronavirus fatality

A Bangladeshi man has died in Gambia marking the first fatality from COVID-19 in the West African nation.

News Deskbdnews24.com
Published : 23 March 2020, 05:54 PM
Updated : 23 March 2020, 06:16 PM

The Gambian health ministry said in a statement that the victim in his 70s came to the country from Senegal on Mar 13.

He was referred to the Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital in Banjul when he fell ill.

The man died in the ambulance before arrival in the hospital on Friday, the ministry said. 

Sample was sent to the Medical Research Council and the results came out to be coronavirus positive on Sunday, it added.

 

Quoting the country’s Health Minister Amadou Lamin Samateh, the Freedom Newspaper, an online news publisher in Gambia, reported that the Bangladeshi was the second coronavirus case recorded there.

He was a visiting ‘marabout’ or Muslim Holy Man’, to Gambia, it reported.

He had held lecture sessions with Gambians during his trip and stayed at the “Marakash center in Bundung” where he engaged in preaching and interacted with a number of people, the newspaper said, citing the minister.

He was said to have travelled from six other countries, where he was carrying out similar preaching, the minister added, according to the report.