Chinese Ambassador in Sierra Leone Ambassador Hu Zhangliang has said that because China has been working closely with Sierra Leone in terms of sharing information on combating COVID-19 has enabled the country to prepare better for the pandemic.
“China responded quite quickly to the outbreak and made available the full genomic sequence of the corona virus.”
He said the availability of COVID-19 genomic sequence helped the global community prepare in advance in the early stages of the outbreak, and even now that the virus is escalating in the country, the Chinese medical teams are working to see if it is the second wave or the first one that they are able to put under control.
“So, making that available was a very, very good step and in that way China did very well. In addition to the support from the Chinese government, Chinese enterprises and business leaders have also provided the country with products that were key in ensuring that we responded very quickly at the beginning of the pandemic.”
Amb.Hu also noted that the Ministry of Health has been having discussions with Chinese developers of COVID-19 vaccine, and he hoped that Sierra Leone will benefit from it.
The Ambassador emphasized that Sierra Leone health officials must act together in face of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. He said as the second wave is heating up in the country, he called on all Sierra Leoneans to be wary of the threat and follow all the instructions laid down by the government to combat it within the shortest possible time.
Week on week, the number of cases has been on the increase to the point that beginning Monday 25th January, nine measures have been put in place to ease the spread including a 10pm to 5am curfew, less travelling to the provinces enforcing face masks and Church and Mosque services not more than one hour 30 minutes.
AT/26/1/2021
By austin.thomas@awokonewspaper.sl