MONROVIA, June 17 (LINA) – The Chief Medical Officer of Liberia, Dr. Francis Ketteh, has called on all Liberians as well as non-Liberians to take all precautionary measures to combat the new variant of the Coronavirus to avoid contamination in communities.
The new variant of the deadly Coronavirus disease has taken a dimensional severity that can infect more than one person in a violent move as ever before and if care is not taken, the new virus might increase the number of confirmed cases on a daily basis.
Phoning into a local radio program Thursday morning, the chief medical officer cautioned all Liberians to remain calm and now to begin to put their hands together and fight this deadly disease from the community level, up to the national level.
« We all need to ensure and work together and combat the new variant. As we speak, there are five counties that are in response now, and those counties are Bomi, Montserrado,Margibi, Bong, Lofa and Maryland.”:
According to Dr. Ketteh, having a response indicates that there are « active cases in a particular locality,” adding that those localities have become hot zones.” noting that the Ministry Health has started a vigorous case investigation, contact tracing in order to move on to another level in terms of the alert system.
He said that today, Liberia has 78 new confirmed cases, and those samples that were tested will be uploaded to the general public. As it stands, Liberia may exceed the number of 257 confirmed cases in one week and it indicates the highest peak since the inception of the Coronavirus in Liberia.
The chief medical officer further stated that if care is not taken by observing all precautionary measures, there is a probability that Liberia might have huge number of confirmed cases that would cause serious instability in the country.
He mentioned that the Coronavirus has shown a new variant in the country, and so with this new variant, every time, it will « mutate, » meaning that the reaction of the virus seems to be very strange in a violent move and the infection rate is very high.
The new variant of the Coronavirus virus disease has the ability to infect more persons quickly while those that are infected and in treatment units find their conditions are becoming severe.
« So, we all have to be very mindful. If you are sick and experiencing fever or other symptoms like; cough, cold and so forth, you know how they are being treating you and it is a bit different from the previous one, please go and do your Coronavirus test. »
« Because people are always saying that it is common cold so they will choose to go to one drugstore to another until it gets severe. Majority of the patients are on oxygen. If you remove the oxygen, they will certainly die, indicating the severity of the virus, » said Dr. Ketteh.
He lamented that at the beginning of the Coronavirus, whenever they talk to people on the virus issue, other people will be saying something different.
« I’m grateful to our boss, the Minister Health, for sending a journalist in the treatment center. After we had meeting with journalists, and one of them volunteered to go into the treatment unit and do a video recording, anytime from now, that video will be uploaded soon to the general public, » Dr. Ketteh revealed
He expressed that in the beginning of the Coronavirus, people at treatment units were noted for taking « selfees » while undergoing treatment all because they never believe that there was something called Coronavirus, but as of today, no one at the treatment unit has the strength to even take picture neither to talk. They are oxygen-dependent.
« Again, we are giving the first doze of the vaccine at the Ministry of Health; which will help to minimize the severity of the virus. As we are all observing the precautionary measures, let us encourage our friends to take their vaccine in order to stop the infection rate in the country.
