By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay
President Julius Maada Bio on Tuesday called for calm as he confirmed Sierra Leone’s index case of the global Coronavirus pandemic.
Bio said at an emergency press briefing convened at the forecourt of the State House that a 37-year old man had been tested and confirmed positive. The man reportedly entered the country on March 16 from France, via Brussels Airlines, and he tested positive on the last day of his mandatory 14 days quarantine.
“There is no need for panic. The COVID-19 is almost everywhere around the world. We as a nation should rise to the occasion and fight. And in this fight which is not just about the government, each and every Sierra Leonean has a role to play. If we play our roles well, we will get rid of this menace and live better lives after,” Bio said.
The announcement sent shock waves throughout the country, where response efforts have been in place for weeks. The development also deflated the sense of accomplishment in terms of preparedness for the pandemic.
With this development, Sierra Leone became the last country in the West Africa region to record a case of the global pandemic which has already ravaged the world’s economy, amidst rising fatalities.
The confirmation of Sierra Leone’s index case comes exactly three months since China announced the first case of COVID-19 on December 31st, 2019.
In his address on Tuesday, Bio assured that if all hands were on deck, the virus could be contained for life to go back to normalcy.
To this end, he said, contact tracing had started with immediate effect, noting that all those who would have come into contact with the case will be tested and quarantined.
“We have immediately and aggressively operationalized tracking and surveillance for all primary and secondary contacts,” Bio said.
Politico understands that some people who were up for discharge from quarantine have been delayed for testing.
Minister of Health and Sanitation, Dr Alpha Wurie, said at the State House meeting that they were also activating more laboratories to conduct more tests in the coming days.
“We are now going to activate three or four laboratories. So, with that we think nationally we are in a reasonable position to do a (one) hundred test per day,” Dr. Wurie said.
He added: “Three sites have been designated as treatment centers, the one at 34 (Military Hospital) is a thirty bed one which can be expanded to 100 beds. The thirty bed [facility] for now is an isolation and treatment center.”
The government’s preparedness has not just been about medical response. President Bio said his government had already put together a program to alleviate the economic difficulty that comes with the Coronavirus.
Commodity prices have been steadily increasing in recent weeks. The announcement about the index case on Tuesday was also bound to cause further panic and paranoia in marketplaces around the country.
In response to that, Bio said: “These are difficult times. We also recognize the fact that we have vulnerable people who can’t afford to go by without support. Quite a number of measures are in place or in work now.”
The government had put together an economic package which has been presented to partners like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
Minister of Finance, Jacob Jusu Saffa, said: “Together with that program is what we call the Quick Action Economic Response Program with a financing gap structure of US$96 million, and in the long term of another US$44 million.”
Meanwhile, the government on Tuesday evening announced further measures aimed at curtailing spillover of the coronavirus pandemic from neighboring countries. A joint statement issued by the ministries of Transport and Fisheries prohibited the landing of any fishing vessel or transport boat after 7pm. It also imposed mandatory testing for all foreign vessels coming into the country from abroad, among other measures.
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