Monrovia- As Liberia gears up to “tighten its belt” against the invasion of Coronavirus into its territories, two stakeholders in the country have highlighted the involvement of Liberians in preventing the disease from spreading to Liberia.
National Public Health Institute of Liberia Acting Director-General, Dr. Monkosa Fallah and former Information Minister Lewis Brown in separate statements said Liberia can be prepared to stop the disease from entering its border if ever citizens see it as a responsibility to initiative awareness at all time.
Speaking Tuesday, February 4, at a lecture series held at the University of Liberia Capitol Hill, under the caption ‘LUX-Talk’ said prevention is cardinal at this current moment when the threat has not affected Liberia.
During the discussion, Dr. Fallah told the gathering that there is a number of increases in the number of persons being affected by the virus, even though the death rate is not alarming, but the number is not acceptable.
He said the disease is dangerous because it is a respiratory illness and that can also be transmitted through direct contact.
With over 97 people coming to Liberia from abroad, 18 of which are from China since the pronouncement of the outbreak in Wuhan, China, Dr. Fallah, therefore, wants Liberia to wake up to the call for adequate prevention mechanism.
“We are working with the County Health Team to encourage all those who just return from China to come out and we have measures in place to encourage those who are in hidden to come out,” Dr. Fallah said.
This, according to him, stand from the fact that developed countries around the world have become setting up a control system against the disease.
“What have we done so far, because the numbers of people to be affected might increase and there will be an economic shock for Africa because most of us from Africa go for goods in China.” Dr. Fallah asserted.
“India, Australia, America, and Britain are now instituting measures and if countries that have a high level of sophistication are putting in place these draconian measures, maybe they are seeing something that we are not seeing that we should wait before we prepared ourselves.”
He said there is a need that Liberia goes beyond the extreme to work out strategies.
With over 97 people coming to Liberia from abroad, 18 of which are from China since the pronouncement of the outbreak in Wuhan, China, Dr. Fallah, therefore, wants Liberia to wake up to the call for adequate prevention mechanism.
Already according to him, there is a port of entry screening ongoing, but some of those being trace “have switched off their phones.”
“We are working with the military to build a bigger government site that can take about 200 persons that will keep people who are entering Liberia for 14 days,” the NPHIL Boss noted.
Dr. Fallah said NPHIL has issued an advisory to stop all Liberians traveling and returning from China and have also written the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to halt the issuance of Lessee Passé to Liberians until the situation calms down.
For his part, Former Information Minister Lewis Brown has emphasized the need for attention to be placed on information dissemination as health authorities continue to carry out prevention measures.
Sharing his experience as Information Minister during the Ebola crisis, Ambassador Browne said Liberians in various sectors must begin firstly create awareness on the virus before proceeding with other activities on a daily basis.
“There should be no sermon in the church until we speak about this threat we are about to face, there should be no talk-show unless we speak firstly about the virus and there should be no political discussions unless we create awareness on this disease,” Amb. Browne stressed.
He encouraged NPHIL to focus more on communication by empowering its Public Relations Office to continue media awareness on the prevention of the disease.
Meanwhile Amb. Browne indicated that the awareness must consider mobilization in all sectors of Liberia, owing to the fact that the virus does not affect a particular segment of the Liberian population.