Two new confirmed coronavirus cases have been recorded in the country yesterday, April 16, 2020, bringing the total number of positive cases to 15.

Both cases are health workers. It is reported that, the girlfriend of the Kenema case is currently on the run

Kenema District has registered its first positive case since the country reported its first COVID-19 case in March 31, 2020 that stemmed from a 37- year- old Sierra Leonean male who travelled into the country from France where the virus was said to be on the increase.

The case is a 29- year-old Sierra Leonean male Lab technician at Shuman Hospital who travelled from Freetown to Kenema on 4th April 2020, a day prior to the 3days lockdown where he resides with about 12 household members at Swaray Street.

It is reported that his entire household is been quarantined as primary contact, while the surveillance team has stepped up contract tracing to trace his girlfriend who is presently on the run.

An additional surge has been reported in Western Urban with one new registered confirmed case, thus, spiking the total number of cases from 7 to 8. The new case is a nurse at the country’s tertiary children’s hospital who was in self-isolation as a primary contact of an earlier case

Prior to this new update, the country had a total of 13 confirmed cases with Port Loko district registering 4, Western Rural 2 and Western Urban-7 respectively.

No death neither recovering had been reported so far. The total number of persons in quarantine at present is 600.

The government has introduced strict measures including curfew spanning from 9pm to 6am for 14 days to help curtail the spread of the virus that has killed hundreds of thousands of people overseas.

Meanwhile, Shuman Hospital has in a press release said, the Lab technician linked with the hospital ceased to be an employee of the hosiptal since 3rd March 2020 and has not been within the premises since he went on leave in February before his termination on 3rd March 2020