MONROVIA – Grand Cape Mount County has launched its COVID-19 preparedness team despite no case has been reported in the county.
Kula Fonana, chairperson of the committee told journalists that the Grand Cape Mount preparedness team is on a standby and in the process of active engagement with health authorities of the county to ensure that the county is prepared to coordinate COVID-19 response in the case of an outbreak.
Grand Cape Mount County was one of the hardest hit counties during the Ebola outbreak that killed nearly five thousand people in Liberia.
The state of denial of the existence of Ebola also led to the death of many in Grand Cape Mount County.
At a news conference, Kula Fofanan said: “since Liberia reported her first case, the county thought it wise to work together collectively to be able to respond collectively. To avoid the reoccurrence of what happened in 2014 the citizens of the county have come together to create a preparedness response committee.”
The committee, according to the chairperson Madam Kula Fofana, has received the full endorsement of the county legislative caucus chaired by Senator Varney Sherman. She told newsmen that the caucus has made an initial contribution of US$5,000 to the county response team.
She also said the committee, with the support from the legislative caucus, has identified a holding site for any incident and also called on residents to help provide the needed awareness in the various vernacular.
“We will be rolling out series of activities that includes community engagement, door-to-door awareness and distribution of food. We want all citizens of Cape Mount to support this process,” she said.
The committee also disclosed that Senator Varney Sherman has, so far, been the highest donor to the fight against the virus in the county with a cash contribution of US$10,000 and LD$500,000. The committee is urging all citizens to make contribution to the process and those want to do so can do through an account at UBA Bank under the Title “Grand Cape-Mount County COVID-19 response fund” with account numbers: 5303000300257 for the USD account and 5303003002713 for the Liberian dollars account.
Those with Mobile Money can also make contribution through the use of the following mobile numbers; 0886942295 and 0880710459.
According to the committee, their first engagement would be to have the two community radio stations in Cape Mount – Radio Cape Mount and Radio Piso on and running. The two stations have been off the air due to the lack of generators.
“Our target and budget for them is around US$3000 and another target is to need the possibility of carrying in sanitary materials and create the awareness.”