NaCOVERC’s Continual Press Interface
As part of its establishing mandate of legitimacy, transparency and accountability, the National COVID-19 Emergency Response Centre has on the 21st July 2021 held a special press briefing engagement at the Ministry of Information and Communications’ Conference Hall.
Being a multi-sectorial structure, experts within the response from various pillars including the Chairman, Sheku Bangura, Official Spokesperson, Solomon Jamiru, Prof. Sahr Foday (Technical Group Coordinator), Prof. Sahr Gevao (Laboratory Pillar Lead), Dr. Mohamed Vandy (Lead, Directorate of Health Security & Emergencies), Dr. Tom Sesay (Program Manager, Extended Program on Immunization) and other Pillar Leads from Risk Communication & Social Mobilization, Psychosocial, Operations and DSTI were present to make short presentations and respond to critical and emerging issues surrounding COVID-19.
In his opening remarks, the Chairman made it abundantly clear that Sierra Leone has (under difficult circumstances) managed to bend the infection curve of the third wave of COVID-19 as opposed to being labeled as a red zone nation. He continued that the response has succeeded in keeping deaths, hospitalization and quarantine rates relatively low while accelerating testing and maintaining enhanced measures.
The presentations from various Pillar Leads summarily indicates that systems such as Immediate Reportable Events, Integrated Case-based surveillance, Tracking & Testing are all being utilized to guarantee proficient Early Warning Systems; ongoing genomic sequencing test that determines variants of COVID-19 infections; ongoing negotiations for more vaccines as studies have shown that an overwhelming segment of positive COVID-19 cases are unvaccinated people.
Media Analyst,
Public Information.
