By Edward Vamboi
As of 8th May 2020 Sierra Leone continued to experience a sharp increase in COVID-19 infections with 26 new cases bringing the total to 257 cases. The country now has 17 total deaths and 54 total recovered, according to the Ministry of Information and Communications on Friday 8th May 2020.
The highest increase since the country recorded its index case on March 30, 2020 despite wide-ranging measures introduced by authorities to prevent the virus from spilling over to local communities.
“Epidemiological data and other evidence indicate that there is community transmission of COVID-19 in Sierra Leone,” President Julius Maada Bio said in a nationwide address prior to declaring the just concluded three-day lockdown (May 3-5).
It has been noted that one of the difficult challenges the country faces is to slow down the number of cases recorded everyday to flatten the COVID-19 curve at a level where the healthcare system could cope or not be overwhelmed.
According the United Nations, the nation lost as much as over 4,000 lives to the 2014 Ebola outbreak primarily because the healthcare system lacked capacity and treatment centers were overwhelmed. Almost 100 percent of Ebola deaths (about 11,000 died in West Africa) were recorded in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.
President Bio said his administration has decided to intensify contact tracing and detection; scale up testing and isolation; expand treatment, and undertake all other measures necessary to break COVID-19 transmission in the country.
The Emergency Operation Center (EOC), which was established during the 2014 Ebola outbreak, is now active. Flights have been banned and the military deployed to help enforce the closure of its borders with Guinea and Liberia.
A nationwide curfew from 9pm to 6am is now intact as well as restrictions on inter-district movement.
Also, the activities of many establishments including schools, mosques and churches have been suspended indefinitely while social distancing, wearing of face mask in public and frequent handwashing are being enforced across the country.
