Sierra Leone on Friday recorded its highest number of coronavirus cases in a single day, with the confirmation of 11 new positive cases.
It brings the total of the country’s cases to 26, according to the daily tally released by the Emergency Operation Center in the Ministry of Health and Sanitation.
Sources say many of the eleven cases are health workers, many of them said to be linked to Case Number Two, who is also a health worker.
Some 531 people are now said to be in quarantine, the ministry said, noting that a total of 974 people have been discharged from quarantine.
With the latest development, four out of the country’s 16 districts have now recorded cases: Western Urban (Freetown), Western Rural, Kenema in the east and Port Loko in the northwest. Kenema has two, Port Loko four, Western Rural five and Western Urban 15.
Four of the 26 cases are female.
The announcement rekindled public debate about the need to lockdown the entire country. Many Sierra Leoneans took to social media to call on the government to declare a 14-day lockdown.
Sierra Leone is currently under a 14-day inter-district lockdown, meaning no one can travel from one district to another. There is also a nationwide curfew between 9pm and 7am.
The government on Friday sought to tighten the screws on the movement restriction, banning passengers from boarding ferries traveling between the capital, Freetown and the airport town of Lungi.
Lungi is part of the Port Loko District.
Only essential goods, including food, will be transported, the statement said.
Also, any boat carrying more than four people will not be allowed to berth at any wharf in the country, the statement added, while out rightly banning transportation of timber.
Sources at the Chinese embassy say a plane load of medical aid package is expected in Freetown as support from the Chinese government.
KC/abj/APA