By Alpha Abu
Sierra Leone has for the first time received a consignment of Covid-19 vaccine. Two hundred thousand doses of the SinoPharm COVID-19 vaccine were donated by the Chinese government to the Sierra Leone government in Freetown.
The vaccine and over two hundred thousand syringes and needles arrived at the Freetown International Airport at Lungi on Thursday 25 February 2021 on a chartered flight from the Asian nation. A statement from the Ministry of Health says, “The vaccines would play an important role in Sierra Leone’s drive to prevent and contain the COVID-19 epidemic in the country.”
The coronavirus was known to have first surfaced in China in late 2019 and had since spread around the world. Sierra Leone recorded its first case on the 31 March 2020. Over one hundred and thirteen million people have been infected globally, with over two and a half million deaths. The United States of America has suffered the highest number of deaths from the pandemic accounting for a fifth of the number.
Other countries hardest hit by the pandemic are Brazil, India, the UK and Mexico. Sierra Leone has recorded 79 deaths so far and has recorded 3,880 cases so far. Sierra Leone was one of four nations in Africa that got the endorsement by the America Centre for Disease Control with the lowest risk in terms of travel during this pandemic.
There is currently a 12 o’clock midnight to 5am curfew across the country. A series of lockdowns had also been introduced in the past to curb the spread of the virus.
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