By Allieu Sahid Tunkara
Public relations officer at the ministry of health, Jonathan Abass Kamara, has rated government’s success in the just concluded 3 days’ lockdown at 80% “despite the numerous challenges that surrounded it”.
In an interview with Politico at his Youyi Building office in Freetown, Kamara explained that the success recorded could be largely attributed “to the training we offered our health personnel and volunteers prior to the process”. He said the success started on the very first day of the lockdown when health workers discovered many Ebola cases from various parts of the country.
“At the Connaught Hospital 6 people voluntarily gave themselves up for testing, which did not happenbefore the 3 days,” he said. He referred to the slow response on the part of the burial teams and inability of the teams to cover every part of the country as a major challenge to the whole process.
Asked what the government planned to do after the lockdown, the health ministry spokesman said that Emergency Operation Centre was collating the results of the exercise, adding that “by all indications, they are encouraging”. He said that the government would consider another lockdown based on the result from the first one.
“The government will soon consider another lockdown of the country if it deems it fit based on the result it acquires from the first,” he added.
(C) Politico 23/09/14
