Senegal has commenced voluntary COVID-19 screening tests and reintroduced the wearing of masks at Dakar’s international airport for Hajj pilgrim returnees, fearing the virus was linked to the deaths of some pilgrims in Saudi Arabia.
Some 1,300 deaths are linked to a respiratory syndrome ailment similar to COVID-19, Health Minister Ibrahima Sy said on Sunday.
“Initially, we thought it was related to heatwaves because the temperature was excessively high, but we realized that there is a respiratory syndrome with the cases of death,” Sy said of this year’s hajj pilgrimage death toll, which happened mostly under intense heat.
“We told ourselves that, probably, there is a respiratory epidemic, and it was our duty to be able to monitor the pilgrims on their return by putting in place a screening system for everything COVID-19 related,” said Sy in remarks carried by Senegalese broadcasters.
Senegal’s health ministry said it had “strengthened the health surveillance system” by deploying a team at the airport to provide voluntary screening tests and identify pilgrims suffering from flu-like illnesses.
The ministry also urged the population “to be vigilant, to show restraint and to be more serene to avoid an epidemic.”
When rapid diagnostic tests were conducted, 78 out of 124 tested positive for the COVID-19 virus. Later, 36 were confirmed by PCR tests, the ministry said.
Chief medical officer for the airport, Charles Bernard Sagna said the alert was raised when the Senegalese medical team based in Jeddah had reported “a significant number” of passengers with respiratory problems.
“There is no cause for alarm but there also has to be prevention,” the ministry said Sunday.
One of the national dailies in Senegal, L’Observateur reported that five of the dead at the hajj were from the Senegalese contingent.
They were among 12,000 officially registered Senegalese nationals participating in this year’s Hajj.
Temperatures climbed to record 51.8 degrees Celsius according to the country’s national meteorological centre. Saudi Arabia’s official SPA news agency earlier reported 1,301 deaths at the annual Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca.
Most of the pilgrims attending mainly outdoor rituals were “unauthorised” and walked long distances in direct sunlight, according to SPA.
The Hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam that all Muslims with the means must complete at least once in their lives. In total, about 1.8 million pilgrims took part this year, a similar number to last year, and 1.6 million came from abroad