The District COVID-19 Emergency Response Centre (DiCOVERC) in the Western Area Urban has on Tuesday 10th November 2020 urged tribal heads and religious leaders to intensify the coronavirus fight in the district despite the level of progress being made so far.
The Western Area Urban is referred to as the epicentre of the virus recording 1,140 of the 2,385 cases the country has recorded so far.
Giving an update on the coronavirus situation in the Western Area Urban, the District Social Mobilisation Manager and Pillar Lead, Haja Kaday Sesay, said about 50% of the total number of cases in the country emerged from the Western Area Urban.
She said on Monday the country only recorded two cases, all from the Western Area Urban.
She said they will be engaged in different sessions to combat the spread of the coronavirus in the district, among which she highlighted the aforementioned engagement and meeting different women’s groups on the said matter.
Sesay maintained that from the surge operation that was conducted, they were able to weed out 123 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, which she tagged as a very fruitful operation.
She ended up calling on the authorities to maintain the three golden rules for tackling the pandemic, including the use of face mask, social distancing and frequent hand washing.
Making his contribution on behalf of the Inter Religious Council, Chairman Sheik Abu Bakarr Conteh thanked DiCOVERC for the engagement to brief them on the virus and what is expected of them as leaders.
He said they will continue to observe the preventive measures in their different places of worship, adding that some people are still reluctant to accept that coronavirus is real.
The Mende Tribal Head Chief, Mathew Jibao Young, underscored that residents in Freetown have forgone the hand washing preventive method in the district, adding that most government institutions in the district no longer have water in their Veronica buckets.
He also stressed that the city is also not observing the social distancing and face mask rules, and called on the authorities concerned to levy fines on anyone not observing the preventive rules and regulations in the district, as other districts are doing.
The District Assistant Coordinator, Mahoney J.J. Ansu, said coronavirus has resurfaced in the West, triggering waves of lockdowns in most of those countries. He appealed to the leaders to do the necessary for such not to happen in the district.
The DiCOVERC Coordinator in the Western Area Urban District, Miatta French, urged the stakeholders to ensure that their people observe all the preventive measures, as only with such observations the district will tackle the spread of the virus.
Face mask, megaphones and flyers were shared among the tribal heads for onward distribution.
Mohamed J. Bah