The government of Liberia main quarantine center here to fight the novel coronavirus, the 14 Military Hospital lacks Intensive Care Unit (ICU), standard laboratory, Oxygen and X-ray machine, among other vital tools to treat COVID-19 patients, according to former senator John Ballout.
Mr. Ballout was discharged from the 14 Military Hospital Wednesday, 22 April along with several others after 21 days surveillance.
Speaking to JOY FM immediately after he left quarantine yesterday, the former senator also disclosed that while at the facility, some of the nurses fell ill and they were hospitalized, stressing, “We need to have serious working on the health sector.”
He wants the 54th Legislature to call in the Minister of Health to brief the nation about the status of the health sector in the wake of the spread of the coronavirus with new confirmed cases reported almost every 24 hours.
The National Public Health Institute of Liberia or NPHIL reported as of 11:00PM Monday, April 20th, two new confirmed cases, bringing total confirmed cases in the country to 101, including eight deaths.
Ballout stresses the need to train more personnel for the health sector, warning, “If we reach cases of 3,000 to 4,000, we don’t have the workers; it’s time to train people.”
“I raised the issues with some of my colleagues at the senate; whatever we do in preparing that place could be for some of us”, he continues.
He details that from an initial total cases of 13, two weeks later, the number of confirmed cases at the 14 Military Hospital reached about 100.The former ruling party lawmaker came down with the virus recently while preparing to visit his home in Maryland County, southeast Liberia.
“I was on my way to the county to join a coronavirus awareness campaign and to have some political meetings; considering I will be interacting with people, I decided to check my status; my status was kind of mild, meaning I wasn’t demonstrating any of those symptoms but I quarantine myself immediately.”
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Mr. Ballout is member of the former governing Unity Party. He is seeking reelection from his people to return to the Liberian Senate. Story by Jonathan Browne
