FAO donates personal protective equipment (PPE) to protect healthcare workers responding to COVID-19 pandemic

Freetown – Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) experience and expertise in strengthening communities’ safety nets and resilience to food insecurity, in food safety and trade can help efforts to safeguard people’s food security, nutrition and livelihoods. Thus FAO is reorganizing its humanitarian and resilience programming to ensure continued delivery of assistance where there are already high levels of need while meeting new needs emerging from the effects of COVID-19. In Sierra Leone, following coronavirus outbreak on 31 March 2020, the Government requested technical, financial and logistical support from partners to respond to the pandemic.

FAO reacted to this call through the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA) program funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and it donated an assortment of personal protective equipment (PPE) to the Government of Sierra Leone through the Ministry of Health and Sanitation. The assorted PPE equipment included: gloves, masks, eye goggles and coveralls which are to be used by surveillance and healthcare workers to protect themselves, during contact tracing, case investigation and when providing care to those already infected with COVID-19 in isolation and treatment centers. The number of positive COVID-19 cases confirmed daily has been rising since the index case was reported in April 2020 and FAO has also greatly contributed to the development of national COVID-19 preparedness and response plan.

During the official handing over ceremony held at the Emergency Operation Center (EOC) in Freetown, FAO Representative in Sierra Leone, Nyabenyi Tito Tipo, together with the United Stated Ambassador to Sierra Leone, Maria Brewer, made the donation to the Government of Sierra Leone. "We know these are difficult times, we should, therefore, stick together and support one another” said FAO Representative in Sierra Leone “the donation is a gesture to show the organization's commitment to helping Sierra Leone in the fight against COVID-19” she concluded.

The COVID-19 outbreak serves as a reminder of other diseases that emanates from animals and transfer to humans, therefore the outbreak should reinforce the need for working collaboratively on the human and animal health systems. To operationalize that multisectoral collaboration, FAO representation in Sierra Leone in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry is implementing programmes aimed at strengthening the country’s capacity to address priority zoonotic diseases using a One Health approach to safeguard human and animal health, to reduce disease threats and to ensure a safe food supply through effective and responsible management of livestock and natural resources.

In her turn, The United States of America Ambassador to Sierra Leone, Maria Brewer, said that"As part of our assistance to Sierra Leone, the U.S Government and FAO are pleased to shift an in-country stock of personal protective equipment, to assist the Ministry of Health and Sanitation with these much-needed supplies.". She added that, “the COVID-19 outbreak in Sierra Leone has stretched the country's health system and the safety of the health care workers is fundamental to helping curb the COVID-19 pandemic. Deputy Minister of Health and Sanitation, Amara Jambai, extended his sincere appreciation to FAO for the donation and thanked the US Government for the support they have extended to Sierra Leone to strengthen the capacity of the country to prepare and respond to COVID-19 pandemic. Sam-King Braima, Honorable Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, who was also present at the ceremony stated that “as the world faces challenges in tackling emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, especially the current COVID-19 pandemic, there is need for a coordinated approach to address public health threats at the human-animal-ecosystem interface.”

World Health Organization (WHO) Country Representative, Evans Liyosi, highlighted in his comments, the need of working together to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. He said that “the Central Veterinary Laboratory at Teko has state of the art equipment that could be tapped to be utilized for COVID-19 testing to ease the pressure and strain on human laboratories which are grappling with backlog of samples.” He thanked FAO for renovating the laboratory and mentioned that going forward, there is need for further discussions on a way the Central Vetrinary Laboratory could be potentially be used for COVID-19 testing.

Uzman Unis Bah

Communication Specialist - FAO Sierra Leone

[email protected] |+23232111882