UNFPA Empowers NPHIL

Hands Over Vehicles, Motorbikes, Mobile Phones For COVID-19 Contact Tracing

UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, has handed over four Pickup trucks, five motorbikes and 60 pieces of mobile phone to the National Public Health Institute of Liberia (NPHIL) to support surveillance and contact tracing during the ongoing Coronavirus disease outbreak in Liberia.

According to a release, The vehicles and motorbikes were previously on loan at the Liberia Institute of Statistics and Geo-Information Services (LISGIS) as part of UNFPA’s support to the conduct of the 2019 Demographic and Health Survey and upcoming Liberia population and housing census.

“Interruption of the Coronavirus transmission in the community is premised on the early detection and prompt isolation of new cases. During disease outbreak with established person-to-person transmission, new cases are more likely to emerge among contacts. For this reason, it is critical that all potential contacts of suspected, probable and confirmed cases are systematically identified and put under observation for the maximum incubation period of the disease,” says Dr. Bannet Ndyanabangi, UNFPA Representative.

“The equipment represents part of the assistance and support of UNFPA to NPHIL in the training and deployment of contact tracers as part of the surveillance and contact tracing as response measure to COVID-19,” Dr. Ndyanabangi says.

“UNFPA and LISGIS will be working together to support the surveillance pillar of the national response; specifically contact tracing. We have to ensure that every person that gets in contact with a COVID-19 infected person is followed and all the contacts are traced to stop further spread of the virus in the society,” he adds.

For LISGIS Director General, Mr. Francis F. Wreh, “the Liberia Institute of Statistics and Geo-Information Services; the entity of government responsible for data and statistics will make sure that the contact tracing aspect of the COVID-19 response in Liberia is conducted effectively.

“We expect that the vehicles and motorbikes will be properly used and taken care of by NPHIL and returned to LISGIS at the end of the COVID-19 outbreak in the country,” Mr. Wreh noted.

In response, Ms. McJane Macauley, NPHIL Deputy Director General for Technical Services lauded UNFPA and LISGIS for their support to the national response of the COVID-19.

“We shall ensure the proper use of the vehicles, motorbikes and mobile phones,” she said.

Comments are closed.