Confirmed COVID-19 Cases
# INFECTED: 539
# ACTIVE: 514
# DECEASED: 0
# RECOVERED: 25
# TESTED: 11,834

Since 00.00 today, residents of Walvis Bay, Swakopmund and Arandis are not allowed to leave their town. Visiting these towns is also prohibited. This was announced by President Hage Geingob and Health Minister Kalumbi Shangula at a press conference yesterday.

The entry and exit ban is valid for four weeks and ends on August 3rd at 24.00. The reason is the rapid increase in new infections in Walvis Bay.

The government sees a big problem in the cramped housing conditions in townships like Kuisebmund. Therefore, it is being examined whether residents could be temporarily relocated. Geingob spoke of 160 unoccupied houses that were built as part of the state housing program.

For the rest of the places in the Erongo region, including Henties Bay, stage 3 of the restrictions due to Corona still applies. According to last week’s announcement, Erongo should have moved on to stage 4 today. The other regions of Namibia remain further in stage 4. Geingob justified this with the fact that apart from Walvis Bay there are no signs of a local infection anywhere.

191 new cases in four days

Health Minister Shangula has announced 191 new, confirmed infections since Friday – 26 on Saturday, 38 on Sunday, 73 yesterday and 54 today. At the same time, he admitted that Friday’s number included a double count.

However, he did not explain why the official total number of 539 does not correspond with the arithmetical result of 540 (349 + 191). The difference cannot be explained with the Namibian truck driver, who tested positive in Botswana, because he was not counted as a Namibian case from the outset.

188 cases in Walvis Bay

The port city remains the epicenter of the Corona cases. Only three of the newly confirmed infections were registered in other cities: two in Windhoek, including a newborn baby, and a 25-year-old woman in Engela in the Ohangwena region. However, she had travelled from Walvis Bay.

As before, far more women were affected (112) than men (78). No gender was indicated for the newborn.

As positive news, Shangula reported that the recovered patient No. 22 has now been released from the hospital. It is a 63-year-old sailor of German origin who had to be ventilated artificially.