October 22, 2020 (232News)
FREETOWN – The National COVID-19 Emergency and Response Center team operating in Hastings led by Sgt Andrew Davowah continue its monitoring exercise over the weekend and throughout the week as part of effort for businesses and ordinary residents to abide by the enhance COVID-19 regulations.
NaCOVERC continue to make considerable progress on its work to enhance social distancing in markets places, business stalls all in a bid to respond to the Corona Virus pandemic ongoing fight in the country.
The NaCOVERC team was visible around Hastings and it environs on effective social distancing measures. The monitoring exercise was led by the SGT Davowah of the Sierra Leone Arm Forces backed by local authorities.
The teams also engaged key partners including market chairladies, Traders’ Union, Drivers’ Union, Sierra Leone Road Safety Authority (SLRSA) and local residents in a bid to sensitize the wider populace on the enhance regulation on the note that COVID is still with us in Sierra Leone.
The monitoring exercise also happened simultaneously with a alongside key messages on major streets and communities within Hastings, Allen Town, and Calaba town lorry park and market.
On Monday alone NaCOVERC was able to reach out to over ten business places, talk to shop owners and market women about COVID-19 regulations and how they could help in the fight but also to safeguard themselves.
Sgt Davowah highlighted some of the measures in reducing human interaction identified throughout the exercise while calling for the use of facemasks and the washing of hands at all times.
He said it is mandatory to wash hands at market entry and exit points and for buyers and traders to put on their face masks before entering the market.
“There is also need for one-way flow of traffic in the market with dedicated entry and exit points. Similar commodities being sold in the same area to enhance the one directional flow of people, he said.”
He said engagement with Drivers’ Union and Traders’ Union Marshalls as well as Market monitors and NaCOVERC team will ensure compliance with the enhance rules and regulations put in place.
The National COVID-19 Emergency Response Center will continue to work with other partners including market chairladies, to institute social distancing measures in markets throughout the Hastings environs in the fight to stop the coronavirus that is ravaging the world including Sierra Leone.
Sierra Leone recorded it first case of corona virus on 31st March 2020. The country has gone to recorded over two thousand five hundred cases with seventy two deaths. Over one thousand five hundred people have survived the virus and over three hundred people in quarantine and undergoing observation.
