By Alex Yomah
The Coalition Government has given itself credit in the fight against the new wave of the coronavirus in Liberia, avowing that the infection cases have declined due to the leadership’s effective implementation of health policies and protocols, as well as the sacrifices and dedication of the health workers.
“As we are all aware, since early last year, the entire world has been ravished by this deadly disease, which has infected almost 200 million persons so far, and resulted in the deaths of more than 4 million citizens of our various countries. Liberia has not been spared the scourge of this pestilence, and we have also suffered our share of infections and deaths. However, through strong leadership and effective implementation of health policies and protocols, as well as the sacrifices and dedication of our health workers, these have been kept to a minimum,” he boasted.
According to the Liberian leader, last month, the country experienced an aggressive upsurge of the COVID-19 pandemic as opposed to the situation seen early this year and last year. Over a period of 3 weeks, the daily number of people testing positive for Corona virus increased from less than 10 to almost 100 per day and the proportion of people testing positive was as high as 20% over the same period.
And also, Weah explained, “In the same month, new COVID-19 infections expanded to 14 of the 15 counties. There was also high hospitalization at the Star base COVID-19 treatment center with nearly all beds occupied. I am informed by the Minister of Health that, as of July 24, 2021, Liberia has recorded a cumulative number of 5,433 confirmed cases after 141,077 tests. Nearly 38.5% or 2,094 of these cases were reported last month. The Minister further reports that there have been 226 deaths since the onset of the pandemic in Liberia; with 140 of those deaths occurring since the recent upsurge of the disease.”
Explaining further, the Chief Executive’s statistics report indicated, “The number of people vaccinated to date is 95,867; of which 86,288 persons have received the first dose of AstraZeneca vaccines, and 9,579 have been fully vaccinated. Despite the above figures, I am pleased to inform you that the country has seen a significant decline in the number of confirmed cases since the beginning of July, and for the past week the number of confirmed cases has been less than 10.”
The President maintained that his government will continue to strengthen the strategic interventions that will urgently interrupt any chains of COVID-19 infections.
“As your President, I am determined to continue to exert my best efforts to ensure that we halt the further spread of corona virus in Liberia,” he added.
President Weah also disclosed that the Executive Branch by law, has asked the National Legislature to allocate an additional $2 million dollars of its resources to enable government obtain critical supplies for our treatment centers and to assist in general case management and infection control.
Additionally, the Chief Executive also avowed that an amount of $8 million dollars was recently approved for Liberia by its development partners to help finance the acquisition of much-needed vaccines and supplies.
“I am encouraged to see that many more Liberians are now heeding our advice to wear masks, wash their hands often and observe social distancing. If we are to be successful in this battle, we will need the collective support and cooperation of all citizens and residents alike, to strictly adhere to the published health protocols,” he hailed Liberians.