According to NPHIL, Mr. Blama turned himself in upon experiencing fever and unproductive cough the day following his return from SwitzerlandMonrovia – Contrary to reports that Dr. Nathaniel Blama slipped through the cracks and resisted quarantine, the National Public Health Institute (NPHIL) case history report says the first Liberian victim of the Coronavirus turned himself in for testing. According to NPHIL, he self-reported to the on March 15 at about 10:43 a.m. and a sample was collected and tested at the National Public Health Reference Laboratory. This is the first confirmed to be reported in Liberia since the beginning of the pandemic in China in December 2019. Within 12hours, the case-patient had been isolated, contact identification, listing, and monitoring commenced, and National Public Health Emergency declared and WHO notified,” NPHIL report stated. The National Public Health Institute also developed an outbreak case definition, surveillance surge team to commence active search and contact tracing and updated its standard operating procedure.

Source: Front Page Africa March 17, 2020 14:37 UTC