DAKAR, July 7 (Xinhua) -- Senegalese Ministry of Health and Social Action reported this Tuesday 69 new confirmed cases of COVID-19, bringing the total number of cases to 7,547 in the West African country.
Out of 693 tests carried out in the past 24 hours, 69 came back positive, the ministry's director of Prevention Dr. Mamadou Ndiaye said during the daily briefing.
According to Ndiaye, the new cases included 43 follow-up contact cases, 23 community transmission cases and three imported ones detected at the airport.
Some 114 patients tested negative after treatments and were discharged from hospitals and treatment centers, bringing the recovery number to 5,023 since the outbreak of the pandemic on March 2.
A total of 137 patients had lost their lives to COVID-19 in Senegal.
Senegalese president Macky Sall will end his 14-days self-quarantine Tuesday evening. But his minister of Tourism and Air Transport Alioune Sarr was put under isolation Monday after being in contact with a coronavirus carrier.
The later was supposed to meet the European Union ambassador to Senegal Tuesday to discuss the reopening of EU airspace for Senegalese. His deputy will continue the negotiations with EU representatives.
According to local media, with EU banning Senegalese entering Schengen zone, Senegalese national carrier Air Senegal would lose 40 percent of its revenue on Dakar-Paris route alone.
Senegalese government expects to resume flights to EU after July 15 in order to boost its tourism, a main source of income for Senegal.
Senegalese president Macky Sall already announced that his country's economic growth would be no higher than 1.1 percent in 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The state of emergency and the related curfew were lifted across the country on June 30.
The decision to lift the state of emergency was seen as part of the government's effort to relaunch the economy that has been dramatically affected by the pandemic. Enditem
