(LINA) – The acting Director General of the National Public Health Institute of Liberia (NPHIL), Dr. Mosoka Fallah, has said that the coronavirus poses a serious threat to humans and if not addressed rapidly could have a negative effect on the human race.
Dr. Fallah addressing the Ministry of Information regular press briefing Thursday said the coronavirus could become a global pandemic given that the virus has spread to the rest of the continents with the exception of South America and Africa.
He pointed out that the key possibility of Liberia contracting the virus is through the people coming to the country from China and other countries around China, something he said the NPHIL and relevant authorities are carefully on the alert about.
“We are prepared as a country. Liberia can win this war by elevating cooperation with citizens as well as aliens. Cooperation from Liberians and residents of the country is a big advantage in this fight as compared to the Ebola virus,” Dr. Fallah indicated.
According to him, as a means of preparedness so that medical practitioners cannot be caught unawares, extra training has been instituted for them.
Dr. Fallah, however, noted that some Liberian business people are putting the country at risk as it relates to the coronavirus because they travel to other countries to obtain a laissez-passer and then travel to China and when they return to Liberia they do not inform the authorities that they have been to China.
The Chinese city of Wuhan is the epicentre of the virus that was first reported there in early January 2020 with the toll of infected persons now in the tens of thousands and deaths over one thousand.
But a World Health Organization report says indicators are that global spread of the virus is slowing in recent times.
For his part, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the National Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) body, Bobby Whitfield, said the commission has launched the Clean Hands, Preventing the Virus Campaign.
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