By Kemo Cham
While Covid-19 has been devastating, it provides an opportunity for Sierra Leone and other African countries to strengthen their health systems in preparedness for future health emergencies, the Country Representative of the World Health Organization, Dr Evans Majani Liyosi, says.
Liyosi, while speaking to Politico in an exclusive interview, says looking beyond Covid-19 is also crucial for Sierra Leone to tackle other pressing public health issues like Malaria, measles and other vaccine preventable diseases which have been overshadowed by the ongoing pandemic.
“The focus should not just be on Covid-19 but also maternal and infant mortality. Malaria is the biggest killer in this country,” the Kenyan head of the UN health agency in Sierra Leone states.
WHO has been at the forefront of Sierra Leone’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic; besides technical support it provides directly to the Ministry of Health and Sanitation and the National Covid-19 Emergency Operation Center (NACOVERC), Dr Liyosi, as Country Representative, has been one of the top advisers of the government throughout the response efforts.
He spoke extensively about the contributions of his office to the country’s fight against the global pandemic and provided expert view on the pandemic going forward, especially in light of the easing of restrictions.
Among many other things, WHO played a major role in preparing Sierra Leone ahead of the arrival of the virus into the country, by ensuring that it has testing capacity for covid, ensuring that the airport was ready for screening people who are arriving in the country, and ensuring that quarantine measures were put in place for people who are seen to have a higher risk. It also boosted the country’s surveillance capacity and helped prepare communication messages.
According to Dr Liyosi, that gave Sierra Leone a major advantage in its response efforts when the virus eventually struck.
“Sierra Leone continued to be ahead of the game in terms of preparedness. We saw further robust measures taken by government when they realized that globally and even in Africa, cases were increasing, including in our neighboring countries – Guinea and Liberia,” he stated.
Dr Liyosi praised the Bio administration and singled our President Julius Maada Bio, for taking proactive measures at the onset of the pandemic. He said the decision to close the airport and international borders were particularly crucial in delaying the first case.
The WHO has said that the virus will remain for a long time. And Sierra Leone is recording multiple cases, with community transmission said to be high. Dr Liyosi says if Sierra Leone is to flatten the curve of covid-19 infection, several factors must be considered going forward, among them enforcement of measures, increase in testing capacity, which his office is taking a lead on in country.
The full interview with Dr Liyosi will be published in our Friday July 10 edition.
Copyright © 2020 Politico Online
