Liberia’s Health Minister Wilhelmina Jallah, has announced that the test conducted on the specimen collected from a patient suspected of COVID-19 at Phebe Hospital in Gbarnga is negative.She made the pronouncement recently on Super Bongese Radio 104.9 via telephone, bringing relief to residents as there is no coronavirus case is in the county.
The specimen was collected recently and taken to Monrovia for testing because Phebe Hospital does not have the equipment to test for the virus.“When we said 52 negative cases, the one from Phebe was included,” Dr. Jallah says.
It can be recalled that the surveillance officer of the Bong County Heath Team, Emmanuel Dweh and the Medical Director at the Phebe hospital, Dr. Jefferson Sibley, announced a suspected case of the deadly coronavirus disease in Bong County.Prior to the test, Dweh and Sibley had said the suspected person had been isolated and the specimen was collected for further verification.
They spoke at the regular Incident Management System through the One Health Coordination Meeting at the Bong County Health Team’s office in Suakoko.But after the test, Minister said the person who was suspected has proven negative and that Bong County has reported no case of the Coronavirus so far.
Through her phone-in interview, Dr. Jallah admonished citizens of the county not to forget to put to practice every necessary precaution which will ensure the speedy fight of the virus.
By Joseph Titus Yekeryan in Bong—Edited by Winston W. Parley
