Monrovia – Liberia’s health authorities announced Monday that the country’s Coronavirus cases have risen from 13 to 14 in less than a day.
They made the disclosure on Monday at the Government’s organized press briefing to provide updates on COVID-19 situation in the country.
On Sunday, April 5, Minister of Health, Dr. Wilhelmina Jallah and the Director General of the National Public Health Institute, Dr. Mosoka Fallah announced that the country had recorded 13 cases of the virus during a radio interview on the state radio, ELBC.
“As of this morning April the 6th, we have one more additional case bringing our total case to 14,” disclosed Minister of Health, Dr. Jallah on Monday.
Out of the 14 cases, three have been discharged; three dead and the rest are still active.
When asked by our reporter concerning the issue of how health authorities were able to establish the latest case, Liberia’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Francis Kateh stated that they [health authorities] know this by tracking and testing of contacts.
“So presently, based on their index case, we are able to go through the epic link and say okay: John Brown had come in contact with this person and so forth and this is how we derived at it,” explained Dr. Kateh, who stressed that it is “burdensome” for them[health authorities] to determine how one contracts the disease.
According to him, with the help of trained health workers who are called case investigators, they [health authorities] are able to nurture all of the needed information to derive at the epic link.
Dr. Kateh then advised that the sooner anyone is tested positive for the virus, the better the diagnosis.
“And therefore, it is important that we all do whatever it is to make sure that we get tested, especially those who know that they have been in contact or begin to see signs and symptoms of the disease,” Dr. Kateh said.
In terms of Contact tracing, he stated that so far, authorities have been able to trace 661 contacts, with 78 being health workers and three being direct contact.