PHOTO: One of the numerous border crossing points
By Charles Gbayor,maorethason1997@gmail.com
HARPER, Liberia- Reports from the southeastern port city of Harper in Maryland County say that busy commercial activities are still continuing between traders along the Liberian-Ivorian border, amid the Coronavirus pandemic.
Liberia currently has three confirmed cases of Coronavirus and some six suspected cases. Four of the suspected cases are in Montserrado, one in Grand Gedeh and another in Bong.
Despite Ivory Coast declaring its borders with Liberia, Burkina Faso, Mali, Ghana and Senegal closed in March, 2020, the Liberian side remains open, with traders from both Liberia and Ivory Coast crisscrossing the frontier to carry out transactions. Ivory Coast already has confirmed COVID-19 cases.
According to our correspondent in the region, the Plolo border market was especially one of the busiest in the border zone on Thursday, March 26, 2020, with traders from both countries seen in their numbers selling and buying goods. There was, as well, a huge presence of ordinary buyers. The day also reportedly witnessed the arrival of a businessman from Togo, another country with confirmed COVID-19 cases to the Maryland Avenue in Harper City.
This is a routine activity in the border area.
According to another report, a man believed to be of Ghanaian descent (but yet to be identified), entered Liberia through Maryland around the same time and is currently residing in the Nekanbo Community of Harper City. Ghana similarly has scores of confirmed COVID-19 cases.
Maryland County’s border with Ivory has four official points, with nine other unofficial crossing points.
Some citizens in the region are worried that the cross border movements in the area pose a serious health threat especially in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic.
Health experts are poised to release results of a specimen taken from a suspected case at the weekend involving a woman who crossed into Liberia from Ivory Coast using an illegal entry point in Grand Gedeh County to seek treatment in Gboleken.
The 22 year old woman is in isolation in Zwedru, along with 11 nurses she had reportedly interacted with at the Gboleken Clinic.
Unconfirmed reports also have it that the border port city of San Pedro in Ivory Coast which is approximately six miles from Harper City, recorded a suspected case on March 27, 2020.
In the face of these developments, the scaring news is the revelation by County Health authorities that there is no testing kit in the entire county.
But County Health Officer Dr. Methidous George told the local Cape Rock Radio that despite the lack of needed equipment, they have deployed personnel at both official and unofficial entry points to do temperature check and ensure compliance with health preventive measures.
“We are trying our possible best to prevent this virus from entering the County,” he said.
George is appealing to Marylanders in and out of the Country to support the County Health Team with fuel, gasoline and logistical materials.
“The ambulances we use at these various health facilities across the County need fuel and gas to transport patients to Jenkins Dossen Referral Hospital, which he says receives at least 200 of them daily.