By Alpha Abu
Health authorities in Liberia have banned mass attendances at funerals across the country and have restricted them to only funeral homes. This latest order is an addition to other restrictive measures put in place by officials in the neighbouring country to curb the third wave of the coronavirus pandemic, which has seen an upsurge in COVI-19 cases in many parts of the world including Sub-Saharan Africa.
According to the Liberian Authorities, restricting to only twenty mourners per funeral, remain in force. Liberia as well as other Mano River Union (MRU) member states of Sierra Leone, Guinea and Ivory Coast have in recent weeks experienced a rise in recorded positive cases of the virus.
Sierra Leonean officials have also responded to the latest surge by re-introducing enforcement measures such as playing football behind closed doors, compliance in wearing of facemasks in public places including places of worship and limiting worship time to not more than 90 minutes.
Some public offices have ordered workers to take the vaccine or threatened them with refusal of entry. Other institutions have asked people going to their facilities to first produce their covid-19 vaccination certificate or be refused entry. Some civil society groups have criticised the decision which they say infringe on the rights of the people. However, there have been long queues of people opting for vaccination in various cities and towns across Sierra Leone.
For Tuesday 29 June 2021, the reported cases in the four countries read Liberia -58, Sierra Leone-52, Guinea- 61, and Ivory Coast-11.
The authorities in Sierra Leone have been complimented before for maintaining an impressive record in controlling the spread of the virus.
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