Sierra Leone News

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.

Freetown, 31 March 2020 - The Ministry of Health and Sanitation of the Republic of Sierra Leone has reported the country’s first case of COVID-19. Samples tested at the Military 34 Hospital, and two other accredited laboratories to detect the virus, in the capital Freetown turned out positive on the evening of 30 March 2020.

Sierra Leone has instituted travel restrictions as additional precautionary and extraordinary measures in preparedness to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic. A statement issued on 16 March by the Office of the President prohibits all overseas travel for all government officials and urged the general public to “refrain, as far as possible, from overseas travel until further notice”. The directive further bans all public gatherings of more than 100 people.

In November 2019, a health care associated Lassa Fever infection in Tonkolili District led to the onset of cases of the disease and death including healthcare workers. The event occurred when two patients presented at the Masanga Hospital with fever and other complications and were treated for their conditions but subsequently died. The cause of their deaths proved to be Lassa Fever, which later spread to three other people including healthcare workers with one additional death

Sierra Leone has commenced the process of developing a National School Health Policy and Strategy to create a safe, healthy school environment for learning with the aim to improve social inclusion and sustainable human capital development. The process is being coordinated by an interministerial core group led by the Ministry of Health and Sanitation. The World Health Organization in collaboration with other United Nations agencies are providing strategic technical assistance to the government for the development of these national documents with funding from the British Government through DFID.

Maternal mortality remains a major concern in Sierra Leone. Recent statistics show that maternal mortality accounts for 36 percent of all deaths among women age 15-49 in the country. This makes Sierra Leone one of the countries in the world with the highest life-time risk of women dying at pregnancy or childbirth.