On 29 August 2020, a newly established WHO-supported COVID-19 testing molecular laboratory was commissioned in Makeni City, northern Sierra Leone, to facilitate scaling up of  testing capacity for the disease in the country. This makes the 6th COVID-19 testing site in Sierra Leone, in addition to; Central Public Health Reference laboratory, Jui P3 laboratory, Connaught National Teaching and Referral Hospital laboratory, 34 Military laboratory and Kenema Government Hospital laboratory.

“This is indeed a remarkable progress for the health sector in Sierra Leone. Not only because we are having a new molecular laboratory in Makeni, but because as a country we have made tremendous strides in improving our preparedness and response capacity to disease outbreaks. And, we will continue to build on these gains to have a self-reliant network of local expertise and functional facilities across the country so that we do not have to rely on external expertise like we saw during the Ebola outbreak”, said Dr. Wurie, the Minister of Health and Sanitation while commissioning the facility in Makeni.

Quality laboratory diagnostics are paramount in achieving efficiency in disease surveillance. Efficient laboratory systems allow for early confirmation and prompt response  to diseases outbreaks providing an opportunity for early containment and control for small as well as large-scale outbreaks. In the face of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, with over 2 000 cases recorded in Sierra Leone, the establishment of appropriate containment measures would be challenging without knowing who is affected.

Currently, the laboratory testing capacity in Sierra Leone is between 400 to 500 tests per day. This, however, is set to change as WHO and other partners are supporting the Ministry of Health and Sanitation to scale up testing to a minimum 1000 tests daily. In addition to increasing the daily laboratory testing capacity, a surge testing is underway in selected sentinel health facilities and community hotspots where members of the public are encouraged to come forward for voluntary testing.

 “Partnership is critically important in making impact as we have seen in the establishment of the Makeni molecular laboratory which was made possible with strong collaborative efforts”, said Evans Liyosi, WHO Representative in Sierra Leone. “As devastating as the impact of COVID-19 can be, I am however pleased that different partners are working together to build institutional capacity and human resources expertise to ensure health security and quality essential health service delivery systems in Sierra Leone”, he added

WHO is supporting the scaling up of laboratory testing for COVID-19 through: addressing inadequate human resource quantity and capacity, and, provision of materials required for testing - in partnership with GIZ. WHO facilitated the training and mentorship of 30 laboratory scientists who are contributing to an increase in the fit-for-purpose human resources for COVID-19 testing and the laboratory system at large, in Sierra Leone. In addition, WHO recruited two international consultants to support local capacity building for COVID-19 testing as well as testing for other diseases of public health interest, like measles, cholera, yellow fever, Ebola, among others.

Establishment of this new testing facility in the Makeni Regional Hospital, in addition to contributing to scaling up of testing, allows for decentralization of COVID-19 testing services to the Northern districts and surrounding communities. This will reduce the time spent in transporting samples to far away laboratories and ultimately reduce the turn-around-time for results – time it takes to have the results. Previously, all COVID-19 samples collected in that region were transported to Freetown or Kenema for analysis, resulting in delays due to transportation, as well as due to heavy workload at the few laboratories. The delays further resulted into fears and anxiety as patients, their families and the surveillance team would anxiously wait to learn the outcome of the tests.

This regional laboratory, in addition to the other investments including recruitment of international consultants to support capacity building, training and mentorship of national laboratory personnel, procurement of laboratory supplies for COVID-19 testing, are a clear demonstration of WHO’s strategic support and collaboration with other partners including US-CDC, GIZ, PIH among others, to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. The ultimate goal of the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, WHO, and all partners is to build a resilient health system that better protects people and their livelihoods from health emergencies and provide life-saving health services to the people of Sierra Leone.