By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay
The head of the Communication pillar at the National Emergency Response Center (EOC), Harold Thomas, has told Politico that they were still carrying out more tests to know the number of COVID-19 cases in the country.
On Wednesday, April 1, the country confirmed its second case of the deadly Coronavirus pandemic. This has since grown to six.
Thomas said the tests were part of their broader efforts of tracing all the people the confirmed cases have encountered.
“We are still conducting tests. We are trying to identify more cases. This is part of our work to track down contacts,” he said.
According to the Ministry of Health, one of the six cases is as a result of community transmission. And there haven’t been any explanation as to how it actually happened.
Minister of Health, Dr Alpha Wurie, said last week that they had tracked down 130 people who met with the index case. Some 43 of them were primary contacts, he said.
Six cases for the country now means more people will have to be tracked down. Thomas said they would not be updating the public on how many contacts they have traced. However, he said updates would be given anytime a new case is discovered.
Sierra Leone has just concluded a three day nationwide lockdown which the National Covid-19 Response Team used to trace t he contacts.
There have been calls by the umbrella body of doctors for an extended period of lockdown.
In a statement released on Thursday, the association said: “There is strong indication that there is already community transmission of the virus within the Sierra Leone population.”
When asked about the possibility of a possible extension, Thomas said: “the three days lockdown is an executive decision. If government decides to extend it, they will announce it to the public.”
To increase efficiency of their work, Thomas said the response team is now working round the clock.
“All the pillars are now operating on a 24-hour basis. We are fully operational,” he said.
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