By Frank Sainworla, Jr, fsainworla@yahoo.com
The number of new confirmed Coronavirus case in Liberia is reaching an alarming proportion, with new figure released by the National Public Health Institute (NPHIL) showing an exponential rise in the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases.
According to the latest NPHIL Update released today, Wednesday, June 8, 2021, an additional ninety new confirmed cases of the deadly virus was recorded in this West African country over the last 48 hours–two days.
The latest persistent rapid upsurge in the number of people coming down with the pandemic is beginning to raise concerns in some quarters. It is not known what the dominant strain/variant of the current rise in cases is. What measures the Ministry of Health and the Liberian government are planning to take to contain what is increasingly appearing to be a new third wave that is running fast is any body’s guess.
When the last Update was published on June 6, 2021, Liberia had recorded 147 confirmed cases. This figure has now jumped to 237 confirmed cases. However, in the last few days, there has been no new death.
Contacts under follow up are 280, with 52 being new contacts being traced.
This dramatic increase in the number of Coronavirus cases comes at a time when most of this West African country have literally abandoned all COVID-19 preventive measures including wearing of nosesmask, washing of hands and social/physical distancing.
Only around 50,000 people have so far been able to take at least one dose of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in Liberia.
The Coronavirus Disease outbreak was declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) on 30th January 2020. And by March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared it a pandemic.
In the last few days, WHO has given an alert of a rise in the number of COVID-19 cases in the Africa region.
“The number of daily COVID-19 cases has increased in the African Region for the fourth consecutive week. Eritrea, Namibia, Uganda, South Africa and Zambia have seen a concerning increase in case numbers, and Mali and Burkina Faso have showed a high case fatality ratio in recent weeks. Botswana, Namibia, Cape Verde and Seychelles are all exhibiting uncontrolled community transmission and are of concern. Health worker infections continue to increase in several countries. Although major progress has been made with COVID-19 vaccinations, there remains a shocking imbalance in the global distribution of vaccines with Africa having vaccines sufficient for less than 1% of the population of the continent,” says WHO May to June 6, 2021 Weekly Bulletin..
In Liberia, NPHIL says 2,057 people have recovered from the virus since the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020.