His Excellency President Dr Julius Maada Bio has met with Resident Ministers, who doubled as COVID-19 Regional Coordinators, at State House and presented them with vehicles to ease their work in the fight against the Coronavirus, COVID-19.

Chief Minister, Professor David Francis, who chaired the event, said that the move was part of the President’s plans to support, strengthen and capacitate the different actors in the fight against the virus. 

He also said that the move was to acknowledge and support the work of the various regional coordinators.

Interim National Coordinator, Brigadier (Rtd) Kellie Hassan Conteh, said that since their appointment the regional coordinators had always responded quite well and they had made lots of inputs in the fight.

He thanked the President for bringing the resident ministers as regional coordinators, noting that they wouldn’t have done much coordination if it were not for their involvement.

He also mentioned that they had disbursed funds to all the district operation centers to start their operations. 

In his response, President Bio thanked the regional coordinators for their contributions and roles in the COVID-19 fight.

He said that there had to be local ownership of the fight against the virus, adding that that meant there was need to decentralise.

He said that the vehicles handed to regional leaders were in recognition of the remarkable work of coordination they had done and to further enable them to do more.

Resident Minister South, Mohamed Allie, said that they were happy to receive the vehicles because it would help them perform their duties effectively. He assured of their commitment to providing the required leadership at regional levels and to work with government to get rid of the COVID19 in the country.