China launches Third phase of the Fixed Biological Safety Laboratory Technical Cooperation Project in January 2021 (Linked to Record ID #62595)

On June 6, 2018, the launching ceremony of the Second Phase of the Fixed Biological Safety Laboratory Technical Cooperation Project (captured in Record ID #62595) was held in Freetown.

As part of the second phase, China would provide technical assistance to Sierra Leone for a period of 3-years in the areas of monitoring, inspection, research and control of epidemics.

The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention operates the laboratory, and is responsible for the implementation of this project.

The overall purpose of the technical assistance project is to improve Sierra Leone's capacities for disease surveillance, control, and prevention, as well as bolster the development of the country's National Public Health Agency.

On December 14, 2018, Wang Gang and He Xiaozhou of the Viral Disease Institute left China to implement the second phase of technical assistance project for the fixed biosafety laboratory in Sierra Leone.

On December 14, 2019, members of China's CDC left China to aid the second phase of the technical assistance project in Sierra Leone.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the 11-member team has shifted its focus to fighting against the coronavirus for the people of Sierra Leone.

The first team that would implement phase III of the project arrived in two groups in September 2020 (on the 3rd and 11th respectively).

Their arrival initiated a two-week handover period in which the sixth and last team from phase two would handover responsibilities to the first team of phase three.

The period culminated in an official handover ceremony on September 16, 2020, marking the end of the technical cooperation project's second phase and the beginning of the third phase. Then on September 18, 2020, the sixth group from the second phase returned to China.

The third phase of the project (captured in this Record) received support from the China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA) and China's Ministry of Commerce, and was implemented by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC).

The first team of experts was lead by Sun Junling, a China CDC researcher from the Department of Infectious Diseases, with Dr. Liu Tiezhu from the Institute of Viral Diseases as deputy director.

Members of the second group of viral disease experts from the China CDC left for Sierra Leone on October 21, 2021 to provide technical assistance for the third phase of the project.

During the phase's implementation, the experts assisted with Sierra Leone's COVID-19 response, aided with the Sierra Leone-China Friendship Biological Safety Laboratory's maintenance, and developed hepatitis prevention and control guidelines among other efforts. Project implementation ended in December 2022.

Then, in June 2023, the phase passed an acceptance inspection.

Following the outbreak of Ebola epidemics in 2014, China established a fixed bio-safety level III laboratory, named the Sierra Leone-China Friendship Biological Safety Laboratory, in Sierra Leone in 2015. The lab cost USD 4.35 million and is recorded in Record ID#44339.