By Prince J Musa in Kenema
The Kenema City and District councils have with support from Integrated Health Partners Administration Unit (IHPAU) engaged chiefdoms stakeholders, councilors, and core staff of both councils in the district on the need for COVID-19 vaccination in their respective chiefdoms.
Addressing the gathering, the Chairman Kenema district council, Mohamed Amodu Sesay said that central government alone will not succeed in mitigating covid-19 through vaccination but that it depends on its development partners such as IHPAU to support the local councils in that direction.
Sesay said government recognize the efforts of traditional leaders especially the paramount chiefs based on their role in 2014 in mitigating the Ebola pandemic in Sierra Leone. He added that, because of misinformation, a lot of people abandoned the health facilities even when they were sick and therefore encouraged the people to visit the health facilities so that the medical people will find solutions to their problems.
He cautioned people to avoid social media messages as they are mostly misleading about the vaccines but to listen to information from the health experts.
The DICOVERC representative Abdul Bayenga Kallon, on behalf of the DICOVERC Kenema, said the district has gone for over some months without recording a single case of covid-19. He commends the traditional leaders for the support given to DICOVERC in breaking the chain of transmission and appealed to the people to continue observing the covid-19 regulations especially hand washing and wearing of face masks.
In his statement, the Mayor of Kenema, Thomas Karimu Baio, said with the many misconceptions that surround the vaccines, he decided to be the first to take the jab as a leader.
“I first took the Covid-19 vaccine to give hope to my people that the vaccine is safe and people to take it,’’ said Mayor Baio.
He said, President Julius Maada Bio was the first to be vaccinated in the country to serve as a guarantee for the efficacy of the vaccines distributed. The Mayor added that covid-19 has caused food shortage in other countries as well. He called on the traditional leaders to continue to give hope to the people to accept the vaccine and that Kenema district is doing well with vaccination, especially when the government is trying hard to protect the people.
The head of Social Mobilization District Health Management Team Kenema who represented the District Medical Officer, Francis Suma told the gathering that, the vaccine for Kenema district is targeted at 361,916 (Three hundred and sixty-one thousand, nine hundred and sixteen), adding that, 45,162 (forty-five thousand one hundred and sixty-two) people have received the first dose and 11,000 people have received the second dose of the vaccines.
He reiterated that, the covid-19 vaccine now captures ages from 18 years and above and that the other categories that were not part of the initial vaccination such as pregnant women and lactating mothers have been included to take the covid-19 vaccine as it has no negative effect on them and the babies.
He said the vaccines cannot be sufficient for the populations in the chiefdoms because it is not manufactured in Sierra Leone.
“If certain diseases such as polio, TB, chickenpox, measles among others have been eradicated because of vaccines so people have to get confident in the vaccine to fight this virus as well,’’ he said.
He stated that, medical organisations across the world such as WHO, Center for Diseases Control, GAVI and other institutions are working with governments to ensure that covid-19 does not spread further and that the only way to succeed in that is through vaccination.
In his statement, the Chairman Council of Paramount Chiefs Kenema district, PC Steven Foday Kpakira Fabba of Dodo chiefdom, said paramount chiefs are part of the government drive to ensure that their people get vaccinated, saying that one of his brothers was having health issues but said since he took the covid-19 vaccine, it has helped his health situation greatly. He, therefore, encouraged the people to take the vaccine for their own protection.
The paramount chief Member of parliament PC Prince Mambu Pewai of Langurama said, to ensure effective and efficient administration of covid-19, the ministry of health and sanitation should recruit more health staff and allocates them to various chiefdoms so that a lot of people can take the vaccine.
He added that, government should also facilitate their movement to tour around their chiefdoms to ensure the messages reach their people.
Copyright © 2021 Politico Online (24/09/21)
