On Wednesday July 21, 2021, the national corona virus emergency response center popularly known as NACOVERC organized a special press briefing at the Ministry of Information and Communication conference hall at Youyi building in Brookfields.
The Chairperson of the program who also happens to be the Deputy Minister of Information and Communication as well as the spokesperson for NACOVERC. While presenting the panel of participants, he intimated to all that NACOVERC is a professionally structured agency manned by a variety of highly placed and well trained professionals who all happen to be Sierra Leoneans hence the emphasis on Local Content.
The panelists included (not necessarily in order of ranking) Group Captain Hassan Coomber, Operations Lead Coordinator, Brigadier(Rtd) Prof Sahr Foday, Prof Sahr Moses Ngevao Data Analyst, Dr. Thomas Sesay Pillar Lead for vaccinations, Dr. Sylvester Squire – Epidemiologist – National Disease Surveillance at MOHS, Harold Thomas, Communications Lead – NACOVERC, Alfred Jamiru – Lead Pillar for Social Mobilization and Behaviour Change, Mohamed Hajj Kella – Deputy Minister of Social Welfare, Dr. Vandy Director Health Security, Michael Mckay – DSTI, Dr. Julius Spencer, Strategic Adviser on Communications, Hon. Alpha Kanu Strategic Adviser on Nutrition and Food Security and the NACOVERC Chairman Mr. Sheku Fatta Bangura.
In his opening remarks, the Chairman stated that their reason for calling the press briefing was to update the fourth estate on the current battle against the third wave of the corona virus known as the Delta strain. He was pleased to announce that since the end of June there has been a down surge of cases in the number of hospitalizations and deaths recorded even before the new restrictions came into effect on July 5. Dr. Bangura informed that there was a dramatic increase in the number of tests done since the beginning of June. More measures which prompted the pronouncements by the President to close churches, mosques and entertainment centers have helped to flatten the curve. The daily positivity rate is currently 2% and this has prevented us from being among countries presently listed on the high infection list. The same measures put in place to combat the first two phases of the virus have been used to combat this present strain. According to Dr. Bangura vaccines are available and urged and encouraged residents in this country to take the vaccines in order to protect themselves. He warned that corona is in the country and in the world so it must be taken seriously. He vehemently rejected the idea that we should be redlisted as our accumulated data indicates otherwise.
Various pillar Leads gave brief overviews of their interventions and emphasized the importance of surveillance, testing and vaccinations. The press was assured that structures were now in place to provide information and early warnings of outbreaks. Dr. Vandy who heads the Health Security sector informed that only Sierra Leone has done a national survey on infection prevalence to get an accurate number of cases. The audience was admonished by all the speakers to propagate the positives in being vaccinated as the more people that are vaccinated will resort to measures being reduced gradually. Sierra Leoneans were reminded that covid19 is the most protracted pandemic witnessed by the world in a very long time and that we should be prepared to have it with us for a long time.
NACOVERC ended the briefing by thanking the fourth estate for their contributions towards this deadly fight and urged all residents in Sierra Leone to GET VACCINATED