By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay
After going over a month without recording a new COVID-19 case in Pujehun district, the district have been pegged back after recording six new cases on Wednesday. The cases were found after a mass testing scheme that tested 101 construction workers of Senegalese company, CSE Construction.
All those who tested positive were found in the border town of Zimmi, Makpele Chiefdom. The District Coordinator of DICOVERC in Pujehun, Mohamed Kemokai told Politico that, “we fear that there might be community transmission.”
“The first set of people that were tested were 101, and among the 101 is where we had these six cases. From these six people we have line listed about 27 that have been taken to quarantine right now. By tomorrow (Friday) we will take their swab as protocol demands and monitor them whiles they are in quarantine,” he told Politico on Thursday.
By Friday there were no positive cases in addition to the six that had already been recorded early in the week.
Kemokai said the mass testing was done on the company’s staff after the government of Senegal requested that the Sierra Leone government test all Senegalese citizens before they allow them to travel back.
CSE has the highest amount of Senegalese working in Sierra Leone, Kemokai said.
There have been reports that 21 other workers of CSE who travelled to Senegal from Sierra Leone had tested positive abroad. Spokesman of Pujehun DICOVERC, Mohamed Massaquoi said CSE did not tell them about this.
“And these people who tested positive were also based in Zimmi before they went to Senegal. We have no idea how wide the transmission has been,” he said.
Kemokai also confirmed that they haven’t been informed, “Yes we had no knowledge that some people had gone to Senegal and tested positive. I don’t know, and I have no knowledge if they had informed NACOVERC, otherwise they should disseminate this to us.”
Massaquoi also said a nurse who had been treating CSE workers has also been isolated and tested. The nurse in question works in the PHU center in the town where she must have come in contact with many patients.
The DICOVERC had since started a major social mobilization drive with all stakeholders in the district been drafted at different strata. Kemokai said he recognizes the challenge ahead of the district in dealing with this latest surge sparking fears that there will be surge in new cases in the coming days.
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