Sierra Leone News

Although the first case of COVID-19 didn’t emerge until late in March in Sierra Leone, by late April, immunization rates and the use of child health care services had worryingly declined by about 19%.

The World Health Organization continues to expend its strategic technical expertise support to include logistical and operational support to the Government of Sierra Leone through the Ministry of Health and Sanitation to respond to COCID-19 pandemic. This was demonstrated with the recent donation of COVID-19 response supplies and equipment worth more than 500,000 US Dollars.

FREETOWN, 27 August, 2020 – The Ministry of Health and Sanitation in collaboration with the World Health Organization, has awarded certificates of participation to 30 laboratory scientists who were recruited and have undergone training in molecular diagnostics as one of the strategies to scale up COVID-19 testing in Sierra Leone. The 30 scientists are university graduates in basic sciences and were selected, based on competencies, to attend a short intensive theoretical and hands-on training in molecular diagnostics.

On 29 August 2020, a newly established WHO-supported COVID-19 testing molecular laboratory was commissioned in Makeni City, northern Sierra Leone, to facilitate scaling up of testing capacity for the disease in the country. This makes the 6th COVID-19 testing site in Sierra Leone, in addition to; the Central Public Health Reference Laboratory, Jui P3 laboratory, Connaught National Teaching and Referral Hospital laboratory, 34 Military laboratory and Kenema Government Hospital laboratory.

FREETOWN, 25 August 2020 – Sierra Leone is celebrating a strategic landmark public health achievement in Africa as the continent is certified today by the World Health Organization, to be free of wild poliovirus transmission. The announcement was made at the virtual session of the 70th Regional Committee for Africa, which is the Organization's highest decision-making body on health policy in Africa. The Committee comprises of Ministers of Health from each of the 47 WHO Member States in the Region.

Press Release Freetown 25 July 2020 – The World Health Organization Country Office has secured a grant of €500,000 from the German Technical Cooperation (GIZ) through a strategic partnership to increase COVID-19 testing capacity from 500 up to 1000 tests per day in Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone’s International Airport will reopen to commercial flights effective 22 July 2020 exactly four months after it was closed to all international passenger flights due to the COVID19 pandemic. Some of the initial measures before closure of the airport included travel restrictions and mandatory quarantining of passengers arriving into the country. These measures would help to delay importation of the virus until 31 March when Sierra Leone reported its first positive COVID-19 case.

The Ministry of Health and Sanitation has finalized an internal evaluation of its Child Health and Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) covering all districts. The appraisal looked at progress on set targets for 2019 and first quarter of 2020, implementation challenges and the capacity of the Programme for effective service delivery at national, district and health facility levels. Being the mainstay of every child survival in Sierra Leone, the Child Health EPI is one of the biggest health service delivery programmes in the country that provides lifesaving health services to an estimated 1.5 million children under 5 years as well as maternal health services to pregnant mothers.

Mass distribution of long-lasting insecticide treated bed nets is underway in Sierra Leone’s capital city, Freetown and its suburbs to complete a nationwide household distribution of 4.6 million mosquito nets. The campaign started in mid-May with nets distributed in 14 of the country’s 16 districts. The remaining two districts (Western Area Urban and Western Area Rural), in the capital and its suburbs account for around a fifth of the 7-million population and has also been accounting for nearly 60% of the confirmed COVID-19 cases.

Freetown, 2 June 2020 - The first United Nations humanitarian “Solidarity Flight” landed in Freetown today to commence the transportation of experts as well as a shipment of essential medical supplies to help in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.