Sierra Leone announces new measures to curb Covid-19 third wave as infection rises

Sierra Leone Telegraph: 20 June 2021:

Sierra Leone has recorded 269 new cases of Covid-19 infections in the last five days. Yesterday Saturday 19th June 2021, seventy-one new cases of Covid-19 infections were recorded in the country, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 4,702.

Last Monday, 14th June 2021, the total number of confirmed cases was 4,433, marking a rise of 269 cases in just five days.

Only two new cases were recorded at the country’s international airport since last Monday 14th June, bringing the total number of confirmed inbound cases to 186, despite suspicion of a large number of passengers from abroad potentially carrying the highly infectious and aggressive Indian variant.

Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, continues to record the highest number of Covid cases in the country, with the Western Urban Area showing an increase from a total of 2,609 on Monday 14th of June to 2,807 yesterday Saturday 19th June – an increase of 198, compared to an increase of 185 cases the previous nine days.

The total number of Covid cases recorded in Western Rural Area has also gone up from 617 to 671 in just five days, an increase of 54 since Monday 14th of June 2021.

As the number of Covid infections continues to rise in Sierra Leone, especially in the capital Freetown, the country’s agency responsible for managing the government’s Covid strategy –  NaCOVERC, has published a statement informing the general public that “Sierra Leone is currently witnessing a third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic”

Although this news should not come as a surprise, NaCOVERC says that “this assessment has been informed by the WHO alert as well as a thorough examination of the epidemiological data particularly for the last one month, which strongly indicates not only exponential rise in COVID-19 confirmed cases, but also increased positivity rates, hospitalization and deaths.

“We are further informed by available data that a significant number of positive cases are from samples obtained from patients in health facilities. These are predominantly in the Western Area.

“In the current instance, many of the cases are symptomatic unlike the initial one year of the outbreak in the first and second waves. In view of our commitment to protecting the lives and livelihoods of our citizens and in response of growing national and international public health concerns, the Presidential Task Force has approved the announcement of the following measures, as proposed by NaCOVERC, for nationwide application with immediate effect, for a period of one month, subject to review:-

  1. The mandatory wearing of face mask in all public places and transportation – ‘No Mask No Entry’.
  2. Social distancing and hand-washing/alcohol-based hand sanitizer use to be observed in all public places.
  3. Services in places of worship shall not exceed ninety (90) minutes, with full enforcement of face mask, social distancing and hand-washing protocols.
  4. Night clubs and cinemas are banned for one month with immediate effect.
  5. With effect from Tuesday 22nd June 2021, Government ministries, departments and agencies will only be accessed by employees and members of the public with proof of at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccination. Full dose vaccination is highly recommended.

Visit our websites www.mic.gov.sl and www.dhse.gov.sl Dial *468# or SMS 468 for COVID selfchecks, tips and updates

  1. National Sports Authority designated-activities and competitions shall be held behind closed doors without spectators. Only footballers and officials with proof of vaccination will be allowed into the venue.
  2. Social gatherings, including weddings, funerals, receptions, naming ceremonies and the likes shall not exceed fifty (50) people, with mandatory face mask wearing, social distancing and hand washing/use of hand sanitizer.
  3. Large-scale entertainment activities or any super-spreader events are banned for the period of one month.
  4. NaCOVERC will be enforcing wearing of face mask at shops and at indoor and outdoor markets and crowded stalls.
  5. Educational institutions shall comply with mandatory face mask, hand-washing and social distance protocols.
  6. Government and private health facilities to incorporate COVID-19 screening for cases matching case definition for COVID-19; and corpses with suspicious case definitions to be swabbed within 12 hours of death.
  7. Media is encouraged to run sustained COVID-19 preventive messages; MDAs and NGOs similarly urged to preface meetings and activities with such messages.
  8. Age for vaccination has been revised further to thirty (30) years, and a total of eight (8) static sites now operating in the Western Area. Mobile vaccination sites are deployed in strategic locations. Residents are urged to take full advantage of the existing vaccine supply.
  9. Fully vaccinated persons after fourteen (14) days of last dose of vaccination shall not be subjected to quarantine. (END).

With Dubai yesterday announcing that it is banning travellers from Sierra Leone entering their country, starting tomorrow Monday 21 June 2021, there are fears other countries may follow suit.

 

4 Comments

  1. These are critical and desperate times we are now living in; A time when the gaps between the rich and the poor are no longer tiny cracks be now gorges resembling gigantic valleys in the bleak,lonely wilderness of abject poverty. Mr Jalloh no amount of sweet coercing will be enough to convince millions of impoverished people world wide to willing allow themselves to be vaccinated with all the misinformation about the vaccines floating like bubbles in the wind out there. The WHO and governments of the world have failed miserably in their efforts and messages to effectively communicate to the world about the efficacy of the Covid 19 vaccines,that’s the reason why people across the globe have been openly wary and skeptical of their motives. There are reports in medical Journals also that have highlighted the fact that most Health workers are refusing to take the vaccines themselves, yet administering it to thousands and millions of people.

    Now no one wants to become a Guinea Pig for the self seeking Pharmaceutical companies that are out to make themselves shiploads of money. The government of Sierra Leone has not been able to do its own research about the safety of the vaccines and provide its findings to the media and public for careful scrutiny; That’s where they have failed miserably; Their naive, sheepish reliance on what the Super nations of the World have agreed upon as irrefutable facts about the safety and efficacy of these vaccines is simply alarming reason enough for serious concern. No one wants to be a Guinea Pig or a Sierra Leone Pig or even an Ethiopian Pig – And who can frown and judge human beings for not wanting to become Pigs in an Experiment by Scientific Capitalist monsters?

    My advice to people is to not allow themselves to be sweet talked into taking any kinds of vaccines – Demand proof of it’s efficacy,safety and side effects and then draw your own solid conclusions. Simply,listened to your heart.(lol)

    • Thanks Mr Stargazer, Mr Wiecha, I sympathise with your arguments about how the coronavirus vaccines were developed in less than a year, without compromising safety by medical experts in their desperate attempts to combat this deadly virus that hit the world in 2019. Under normal circumstances, it takes about ten years from research and development. But there was nothing Normal about COVID19. This was once in a generation diseases. No country have experience it before. So there was no guide how to tackle it. What ever the out come a vaccine is only effective if people are WILLING and not FORCED to take it. October, last year around the world, when Nature Medicine ,the medical journal, conducted a survey of 19 countries, they found “71.5% of respondents would consider taking a COVID19 vaccine and that 61.4% would take it if their employer recommended it” I could be one of the million guinea pigs that have already took their two doses. So pray for me and others.

      On the question of the suspicions of western research medical facilities using black people as guinea pigs, historically, that is a fact no one can deny. In April 2020, two French doctors went on national television and suggested they wanted to test the vaccine on Africans. They were roundly condemned for their racist remarks. And for Africans or black people in general it awoke horrible memories of western medical research dark history in the continent, and to African American slaves right up to American medical research on deadly diseases of the 1950s and on their black population. That’s one of the reasons there is such a resistance from black people in the US and UK, France, and Canada to get a jab but ironically not Africa. It was left to Demba Ba, the French born Senegalese international player, Samuel Eto’o and Drogba to come out and condemned those two French doctors in the strongest terms.

      Once again no word of condemnation from any African president, the AU or ECOWAS. Perhaps since our own African leaders don’t trust our medical facilities, that might explain their lack of condemnation. Understandably, when these leaders catch a man’s cold, there is always the National carrier waiting at the Airport to fly them out for medical check up. Bio, Buhari, and late Robert Mugabe come to mind. So gentlemen at the end of the day no one is going to force any one to take the vaccine. Its what we call freedom of choice.

  2. These are critical moments in our country, but not unique in itself. We are just part of a global effort trying to fight this deadly virus that has killed so many people in Africa, Europe, North and South America and South East Asia where it originally started. If only people comply with government advise, with all the protocols put in place, by all people without claiming any exception, we will defeat this deadly pandemic. Together with the mobile vaccination pop up sites especially in our crowded cities like Freetown, people should take advantage of the program and take the vaccine if offered. Both the Pfizer and Astrazenica have shown if taken will reduce the risk of hospitalisation even if one is unfortunate to catch it. Given the pressures on our underfunded and over worked health workers, that over the years have emerged as our true national heroes, who risk there lives to save lives in the battle to contain this virus.

    As citizens we can help and join this battle to stem the spread of this disease, by taking the vacine if offered to you, obey the mandatory protocols put in place by the Bio government, social distancing, wearing of face mask, avoid large scale public gatherings, as India has shown that uncontrolled congregation of people whether for religious purposes, or parties in Lumley beach can act as super spreaders of covid19. We know the drill, this disease has been with us for the past two years. People have lost their lives and livelihoods. There is nothing political in this health emergency. When covid19 hits, it doesn’t ask you which way you voted in the last election, or which party you support. Better still as Bio the president has proved, it doesn’t care whether you are the president of a country, or hustler in devil hole trying to make ends meet, when it hits, it hits you with the aim of killing you.

    As for those still wedded in vacine conspiracy theories, they just have to compare the statistics of countries that have managed to vaccinate majority of their populations, Israel, United Kingdom, Russia, the United States and some Middle Eastern countries in the Gulf, and the not so doing well countries like Brazil and India where the death rates have stubbornly stayed up, and in some places where the grave diggers can’t keep up with demand from burial sites. These are the realities of this covid19 pandemic.

    • vacine conspiracy theories? sorry, but in the meantime you can hear more and more critical voices against these new dna vacines, sure not from the big pharmacy corporations, the who, bill gates or the mainstream media. more and more the truth comes out in relation to the background of corona case numbers, the effectiveness of the pcr test and so on. in some month we all shall know the truth, be sure.

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