A two-week lockdown has been instituted at Orealla and its satellite village, Siparuta, in Region Six, after they recorded multiple cases of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in less than two weeks.
Statistics provided by the Ministry of Health (MoH) revealed that Orealla currently has 18 active COVID-19 cases, while Siparuta has 62. The Ministry confirmed that one person from Siparuta who was infected with COVID-19 died earlier this month. The elderly man died while receiving care at Skeldon Hospital, a few days after doctors began detecting cases in Siparuta. He reportedly had a stroke and died on the same day he received his COVID-19 test result.
According to Toshao of the two villages, Carl Peneux, the COVID-19 cases were detected as a result of students from Orealla and Siparuta being tested in Corriverton in order to return to school. He revealed that nine students were tested and one of them tested positive for the virus. The student who tested positive was isolated and contact tracing commenced after which testing was done in the community.