By Nasratu Kargbo
The Director and Chief Operating Officer, Directorate of Science and Technology (DSTI), Michala Mackay has told newsmen of plans to partner with NaCOVERC to create a means where individuals would access their COVID-19 results electronically, E-Certificate.
She said this on Thursday 3rd June 2021 during the weekly government press briefing at the Ministry of Information and Communication.
Mackay explained that DSTI supported NaCOVERC with systems and applications to make sure that response is fast and efficient. She explained that one of the interventions they have made was to create a traveling portal for those coming in and out of Sierra Leone to register. This she said made it simple to trace passengers and collect personal data from them prior to their entry in Sierra Leone which included COVID-19 negative results.
She added that what they have done is to be in line with other countries, “wherein, if a passenger is coming from a high-risk country, the moment he/she enters his/her data, we would immediately receive data that would advise that upon your arrival you should be quarantined,” she said. She added that they will also partner with Fix Solutions to see how they can make it possible for one to access one’s results online; that is the E-Certificate.
The Director went on to explain that DSTI will be launching the E-certificate on the 4th June 2021, which will allow people to access their certificate electronically on the same traveling portal they have registered. The E- certificate will contain the Quick Response Code, which contains all the individuals’ personal data.
NACOVERC’s communication officer, Harold Thomas explained that it was the 62nd week since Sierra Leone recorded its first COVID-19 case on the 31st March 2020.
He gave a status update on Covid-19 in the country with cumulative confirmed positive cases standing at 4,162 (four thousand one hundred and sixty-two), total number of death at 79 (seventy-nine) with 6 ( six) active new cases and cumulative recovery of 3,147 ( three thousand one hundred and forty-seven), 89 eighty-nine people were in quarantine with a total of 14,941 (fourteen thousand, nine hundred and forty-one) discharged from quarantine at the time of his report.
Thomas also gave a status update of the Mano River Union states saying “today Sierra Leone recorded 6 cases, Guinea 0, Liberia 9, and Cote D’Ivoire 37”. On the deaths from the virus in the other countries, Guinea has 162, Liberia 86, and Cote D’Ivoire 306, making Sierra Leone the country will the least recorded death in the Mano River sub-region.
Thomas, therefore, pleaded with Sierra Leoneans to take the COVID-19 vaccine and to continue with all the preventive measures.
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