By Mabinty M. Kamara
The Tongo-based miner, Sierra Diamond Mining Company, has halted its operation after one its staffers tested positive for Covid-19, Politico has learnt.
The incident has led to the quarantining of scores of the company's workers.
The case, which sources say is a foreign national, is the first in the diamond rich town located in the eastern Kenema district of Sierra Leone.
The District Covid-19 Emergency Operation Center (DEOC) confirmed the development and an official told Politico that all necessary measures were being taken to prevent further spread of the virus outside the company.
Mohamed Koroma, the head of Surveillance in the DEOC, said the case is a senior official within the company's management, and that they had tested positive for the virus in Freetown on Sunday, 7th May after attending a meeting in the capital city with other company officials. The official, according to Mr Koroma, reported ill on Wednesday 3rd May.
Sierra Diamond reportedly halted its operation on Monday, 8th May.
Koroma official said about 22 other officials have been placed in isolation within the company's premises in Tongo, where they are being observed by the surveillance team.
“Because they do not know where he contracted the virus, they have been placed in quarantine at the company premises. They have a good quarantine facility which is spacious,” he added.
Many other company workers, mostly junior staffers were also said to be at home.
A spokesman for the company couldn’t comment on the issue when contacted by Politico, citing lack of information on it.
News about the case has left the community people in anxiety. And because of the uncertainty about the source of he infection, there is some sense of denial in the population.
Umu Ndjamena, a civil society activist based in the town, said the community people were anxiously waiting to learn more about the source of the infection.
“We heard [that] it’s one foreign national who has been onboard the Coronavirus disease fight in the community as he has been doing sensitization and distributing hand sanitizers and other condiments in their operational communities in the chiefdom,” Ndjamena said, noting that they were waiting to hear from the health authorities to know where the person contracted the virus.
The DEOC official said the confirmed positive case is currently at a treatment center in Freetown.
Kenema is one of the districts with the highest number of Covid-19 cases, according to figures from the National Covid-19 Emergency Operation Center (NACOVERC). As of Thursday, June 11, the district had 84 cumulative confirmed cases, third behind Western Area Urban and Western Area Rural, with 608 cases and 155 cases, respectively.
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