Highlights
In efforts to support the government’s plan to get to a resilience Zero, as part of the 60 Day mark committed by heads of states from the Manu River Union Commuque, UNMEER in collaboration with UNOPS have fulfilled the operational needs (24 Pick-Ups, 9 Ambulances, 9 Hearses and over 50 Tents with accommodation) for the NERC in support of the existing and upcoming surges in the districts of Sierra Leone. UNMEER is further providing financial and technical support to the DERC for activities such as case investigation and contact tracing (especially riverine areas); active case searching; implementation of Community Events Based Surveillance; Border Health Screening; local healer support and alert program.
The Hazard Cash Transfer Program, funded by the World Bank and African Development Bank, with implementation and technical support provided by UNDP, UNMEER and UNCDF, commenced February Hazard Payments to over 20,000 Ebola Response Workers (ERWs) across the country. The first batch of February hazard payments to 4,600 ERWs in Western Area is paid after attestation by their Health Facilities, with 40% paid in their bank accounts and 60% via mobile money. The February Pay will continue as attested list of workers are received from Facility Managers as per the revised Hazard Policy, facilitated through the biometric re-verified list of ERWs.
In the ongoing preparation of the school re-opening, UNICEF and other partners worked to prepare a manual for teachers to be trained on psychosocial support in the context of Ebola, and a Training of Trainers (ToT) program is scheduled to start next week. UNICEF is supporting the training of a total of 7,000 teachers through the training of 28 Masters and 420 Trainers of Trainers.
As part of the process of scaling down the bed capacity of Ebola Treatment Centers across the country, various FMTs are working with the NERC, MoHS and partners to ensure that the identified ETCs required to close (school/existing hospital) occurs in a coordinated manner.
The CDC/MoHS Ebola prevention vaccine trial has selected 7 sites and identified 3 distribution points within the four districts of Bombali, Tonkolili, Port Loko and Western where it will carry out its vaccine study.
Although there is a lack of reliable statistics, the number of children receiving routine vaccinations in 2014 seems largely reduced. Mass vaccination campaigns were postponed to avoid public gatherings in the midst of the EVD outbreak. Since December 2014, some immunization activities have taken place, especially for measles, to increase vaccination coverage in the most affected countries. In early 2015, cases of measles have been reported in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone
The UNMEER Field Crisis Managers now have 15 Quick Impact Projects either operating or approved. These projects are in 12 of the 14 districts in the country and focus on the key elements of the current crisis: these include social mobilization efforts using survivors and traditional healers, cross border initiatives, delivery of supplies to quarantined households and radio programs to raise awareness of key messages.