Sierra Leone, COVID19 triage is up and running

In Sierra Leone, Holy Spirit Hospital’s triage facility is now operational making it possible for infectious diseases to be identified so that those coming to the hospital with suspected Coronavirus can be separated from other patients.

Once the facility was completed, triage as the entry point for patients going to Holy Spirit Hospital was able to start receiving patients immediately.
This area is the first step in assessing whether a patient may have Covid and if so, isolating them and taking them to the government hospital in Makeni, the only centre in the region where coronavirus patients are tested and treated.
Seku, the project’s local contact person, writes: “Triage is very important because by separating people suffering from infectious diseases from other patients before they enter the hospital, we can control and prevent the spread of Covid and other infectious diseases. We currently have four members of staff running triage under the supervision of a doctor.”

The triage facility opened on 21 January 2021, and 296 patients were seen in the first ten days, 14 of whom were referred to Makeni Government Hospital as suspected Covid 19 cases.
Two of those cases actually tested positive for Coronavirus.

At the end of January, an average of 65 new COVID infections a day were being recorded in Sierra Leone, with 3,660 total cases, 2,340 cures and 79 deaths.