By Thomas Vandi Gbow
The spontaneous attacks on COVID-19 Surveillance Team, by inmates of a quarantined home and irate residents of Kenema city in the Eastern Region over two positive cases, and the chanting of the people that “Corona nor dae; na money making,” have strengthened the popular misconception about the pandemic, despite medical experts say it is real.
According to report, thirty (30) inmates of a quarantined home on Jaguai Street were to be declared COVID-19 free on Tuesday 2nd June, when the Surveillance Team told them two (2) were positive. The announcement of the two positive cases so infuriated the inmates that they attacked officials of the Surveillance Team and hell was let loose when the pandemonium attracted neighbours and residents from far and wide as the news went round the city.
Even authorities of the District Emergency Operations Centre (EOC), that rushed to the quarantined home to quell the situation, were met with stiff resistance from the aggrieved crowd, let alone the health workers who attempted to transfer the thirty (30) inmates to other quarantined homes and isolation centres as the people continued to chant: “Corona nor dae; na money making,” meaning Corona is not real, it’s all about money making.
But at the end of the day, the District COVID-19 EOC authorities and other stakeholders, including the Mayor of Kenema and Chairman of Kenema District Local Council, brought the brouhaha under control and twenty-eight (28) of the inmates were eventually transferred to different quarantined homes, whilst the two (2) positive cases were taken to an isolation centre.
The unfortunate incident in Kenema, which is the epicenter of the pandemic in the provinces, has ignited yet another debate among Sierra Leoneans, whose views on the COVID-19 pandemic are based on misconceptions and prejudice. Like the aggrieved Kenema residents, who chanted that Corona is not real, it’s all about money making, many of their compatriots in other parts of the country are equally convinced that the virus is farce. Also at home and abroad, there is the belief that a secret conspiracy is responsible for the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic around the globe, as amplified by the misconceptions and prejudices against the outbreak. It would therefore be a herculean task for the Government to change the mindset of Sierra Leoneans who believe in that conspiracy theory.
The misconceptions and prejudices swirling around the reality of the virus should be blamed on the Government for its inadequacies in programming sensitization and awareness-raising activities for the general public to actually understand that the pandemic exists through and through. Instead of sensitizing, educating the people on the virus and making them take ownership of the COVID-19 fight, every Government institution was busy day-in-day-out drafting regulations for the COVID-19 fight and forcing them down the throats of people without any recourse to their impacts on the impoverished Sierra Leoneans. Such regulations have, onto this day, not darkened the well of the august body for Parliamentary approval.
That is the crux of the matter in Parliament as I write. And in the interest of supporting the President to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, therefore, the Leader of Government Business in Parliament this week urged the Attorney General and Minister of Justice to present those Regulations before the expiration of 90 days as it would be difficult for them if the Regulations are not in Parliament before the expiring date of the State of Emergency on 26th June.
Then, there is this problem of Government’s questionable sincerity to honour the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) it signed with representatives of the health workers, including the Sierra Leone Medical and Dental Association, on 21st March, 2020 establishing compensation and incentive packages, which is yet to be fulfilled by the Government albeit the Ministry of Finance is giving the impression to the general public that all is well with health workers.
The Ministry of Finance, for instance, on Tuesday 2nd June, 2020 informed the general public that the Government has paid Le6, 529, 184, 393 (Six Billion, Five Hundred and Twenty-Nine Million, One Hundred and Eighty-Four Thousand, Three Hundred and Ninety-Three Leones) to 8,889 healthcare workers as PAYE (Pay As You Earn) tax refund for the months of April and May. The aforesaid sum of money, according to the Finance Ministry’s press release, was paid directly into the accounts of the frontline healthcare workers. This statement, according to my observation, is contrary to the excuse this week by the NACOVERC official spokesperson, Solomon Jamiru, that frontline healthcare workers would be paid their cash risk allowances immediately after the verification of their accounts was completed by the Ministry of Finance.
So if the Finance Ministry paid the tax refund into the accounts of the frontline health workers in May, should there be any need for a new verification of accounts after the Ministry had accessed those accounts barely less than one week? I find the statements of the Ministry of Finance and the NACOVERC spokesperson to be totally at variance with the press release issued by the Sierra Leone Medical and Dental Association on behalf of healthcare workers late Wednesday.
In addition to the payment of PAYE tax refund, the Finance Ministry also told the general public, in its press release, that the COVID-19 Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) has been paying the Le1, 000, 000. 00 (One Million Leones) weekly cash risk allowances to frontline healthcare workers. But in its news release, the Sierra Leone Medical and Dental Association expressed dismay, stating that the claim was a “malicious hoax.” It also noted that allowances to healthcare workers, in the very frontline at treatment and isolation centres, are almost non-existent at the end of the second month of the COVID-19 fight.
The Association furthered that the PAYE tax refund has been very erratic and only paid to some healthcare workers, adding that healthcare workers were very disheartened over a lot of unfulfilled promises. It charged that Government’s commitment towards healthcare workers is “complete lip-service across,” and gave a 48-hour ultimatum to Government to address the situation else healthcare workers will lay down tools.
Given the recent spontaneous attacks on the Surveillance Team in a quarantined home in Kenema and their concomitant effects, people with views of misconceptions and prejudice against the pandemic, the frosty relationship between the Government and healthcare workers over the non-fulfillment of promises the former made to the latter, and the poor sensitization and awareness-raising activities on the virus, it seems that the Government is slowly, but surely losing the COVID-19 fight at a time when the country has not reached the peak of the outbreak.
People are still being infected with the virus that has spread in almost every nook and cranny of the country. Many are still dying of the virus albeit the recovery rate is encouraging and much higher than the cases of death. But amidst the alarming infections and ravaging of lives, aggrieved healthcare workers continue to abandon treatment and isolation centres, and leave quarantined homes and centres unattended in protest against the failure of Government to honour the MOU it signed with representatives of healthcare workers on 21st March, 2020, which established compensation and incentive packages for frontline health workers.
Besides, the rigid stance of Government on many restrictions in the COVID-19 fight is another kettle of fish as they have made life extremely difficult for most Sierra Leoneans, especially the inter-district lockdown that has placed serious limitation on the movement of people and local commodities produced in the rural areas. Government should therefore consider easing some of those restrictions in order not to prolong the extreme suffering of the dregs of society that are in the majority.
I therefore submit that the Government may lose the COVID-19 fight if healthcare workers at treatment and isolation centres, laboratory and quarantined homes and centres are not treated fairly according to the MOU, which the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS) signed on behalf of Government, whilst the Sierra Leone Medical and Dental Association and three other representatives in the health sector signed on behalf of the frontline healthcare workers in Sierra Leone. It is never too late to do the needful. Is Government really committed to winning the COVID-19 fight?