May 14: 272 cases, record for one-day testing
Total confirmed cases = 272 (new cases = 9)
Total recoveries = 108
Total deaths = 5
Active cases = 157
Tests over 24-hours = 3,580
Total tests so far = 45,278
All nine cases are Ethiopians, five male and four female. Five of them are from Addis Ababa and the remaining four from Jigjiga in the Somali region.
Two of the nine new patients have no travel history abroad or no known contact with confirmed case, four have travel history abroad; and the remaining 3 have come into contact with infected persons.
According to private portal Addis Ababa, 3,580 tests represents the highest one-day test since the first infection was recorded on March 13.
May 13: 263 cases, arrests over face masks condemned
As of May 13, two more people tested positive for COVID-19 bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 263.
Another two patients also recovered making the total number of recoveries 108. The death toll is still at five. 148 patients were under treatment.
In the space of 24 hours, 2650 lab samples were collected from hotel and non-hotel quarantines, the community, contact tracing and health facilities for testing.
Police in the capital Addis Ababa began an operation aimed at enforcing the wearing of face masks, eventually arresting over 1,300 people in the process.
On May 6, the city Transport Authority ordered passengers using minibuses to wear face masks as of Friday May 8. Masks are also a key safety measure under the current state of emergency regulations.
Reacting to the development, head of the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, EHRC, Daniel Bekele described the arrests as among others: arbitrary, disproportionate & counter-productive.
The arrests should stop immediately and all those detained should be released immediately, an official statement quoted him as saying.
May 12: 261 cases, President Sahle-Work speaks
Ethiopias case count hit 261, the Health Ministry announced on Tuesday. The figure includes 11 new cases. Death toll is at five whiles 106 persons have recovered. It leaves 148 active cases.
President Sahle-Work Zewde has called for global solidarity in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. In a recorded message posted on Facebook, Africas sole woman president said the virus was attacking the world and the world needed to unite against it.
It has raised havoc in communities all around the world. Our way of life has completely been disrupted. Hundreds of thousands of people have died. Millions have lost jobs. Trillions of dollars have been lost.
This crisis is different. We have suddenly found ourselves in the same boat. As much as individualism and nationalism are visible, it has revealed the capacity of people to support each other and to build solidarity with the weakest among us. We have seen the heroic crew of medical staff and many others. she stressed.
She reiterated support to the United Nations Call for Solidarity adding: Let us be clear. It is not about charity or generosity. I stand in support of the Uni
