People dancing behind Ebola quarantine awaiting release
President Ernest Bai Koroma has assured that the end of Ebola in Sierra Leone is nigh saying the country will this month - August - start the crucial 42-day countdown to being declared Ebola-free by the UN World Health Organisation (WHO).
He was speaking in Massessebeh in the northern Tonkolili District on the 14 August where he had gone to lift the three-week-long quarantine on the entire village of nearly 600 people. He said the occasion was the beginning of the end of Ebola in the country.
The president however urged the people to remain vigilant and report deaths and any sickness to the health authorities, reminding them that they would not have been placed into quarantine in the first place had a sick person not been allowed in from Freetown - after the district had gone 150 days without a single case.
He reminded them of how Liberia had been declared Ebola-free just for one case to reemerge, and hoped the entire region including Guinea would get rid of the virus and bring about development yet again.
He said the lifting of the quarantine “represents a significant progress that we have achieved…I believe we cannot go back, we can only go forward”.
The CEO of the National Ebola Response Centre, Major (Rtd) Pallo Conteh said Ebola had been boxed into a tight corner. He said lifting the Massessebeh quarantine “shows that we are getting to the end of the fight”.
He went on: “It’s been a difficult fight for the last 10 months…It’s good for Sierra Leone, it’s good for Sierra Leoneans, the international community. Great support! We are just pleased that we are seeing the back of Ebola. But no complacency until we have the two cases which we have in Makeni discharged.”
Like his boss, the CEO said the occasion marked the beginning of the end of Ebola in the country.
President Ernest Bai Koroma had earlier cut the red tape which had been ringed round hundreds of residents of Massessebeh - mostly women and children - sparking wild and fevered celebrations with people pouring out on the streets in a carnival mood carrying leaves and beaten pans and pots.
Three women who gave birth in quarantine were taken to an observation interim care centre (OICC) in the district headquarter town Magburaka, for proper care. One of them 20-year-old Ramatu Sankoh clutched her baby saying it was a hard experience but worth the while if only to defeat Ebola.
85-year-old Ya Amie Koroma stood in front of her house as she sang and danced to mark what she said was “the end of Ebola”. Her granddaughter had given birth while in quarantine and was eager to set eyes on her great grandson as they are in a health facility. “All I want now is to see my great grandchild” she said.
There was dancing and singing both behind the red tapes and after they had been cut.
(C) Politico 19/08/15
