DAKAR, April 25 (Xinhua) -- Senegalese ministry of Health and Social Action reported on Saturday 69 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of cases to 614 in the country.

Among the 703 virological examinations carried out within the past 24 hours, 69 came back positive, including 63 follow-up contact cases and 6 cases of community transmission, spokesperson of Senegalese health ministry Alyose Waly Diouf said during the daily COVID-19 briefing.

According to him, 4 of the 6 communitry transmission cases were detected in Dakar.

So far, Senegal has reported 614 confirmed cases of COVID-19 since March 2, the start of the pandemic in Senegal. Among those confirmed cases, 463 are close contacts cases, 85 are imported ones and 66 are due to community transmission. Seven patients have lost their lives to COVID-19.

On Friday, Senegalese health minister Abdoulaye Diouf Sarr annonced his ministry would "considerably increase the number of samples taken per day, in order to allow the identification of a maximum of asymptomatic carriers."

He also insisted on mandatory wearing of masks in markets and other public places in order to avoid community transmission of the virus.

Senegalese president Macky Sall extended the current state of emergency in a presidential decree on April 4, along with the dusk-to-dawn curfew for 30 days, till May 4.

The country has isolated itself since March 20 midnight when all its international passenger flights were suspended. Enditem

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