Prime Minister Hon. James Marape has confirmed that there are now five new cases of coronavirus in Papua New Guinea.
This brings to a total of seven persons who have now contracted the coronavirus or COVID-19.
Briefly the seven persons who have contracted the disease are all well. This includes the, first imported case, a male adult Australian mine employee who is now in Australia who have recovered. And the second local in the East New Britain Province.
Details of the five new cases are as follows:
- Firstly, there is a 12 year old male from Western Province.
- Second case is a 30 year old male from Western Province.
- Third case is an adult female in the Western Province whose age is unknown.
- Fourth case is a 42 year old female from NCD.
- Fifth case is a 37 year old male from East New Britain.
All those cases were consistently positive after repeated tests.
All of these people are well and under observation and in quarantine .
For the East New Britain cases both patients are under observation and are being monitored by the East New Britain Provincial Health Authority. One thousand Universal Transport Medium (kits for transporting samples) and swabs for sample collection have reached Daru and 200 to Kiunga. Twenty-two cartons of assorted PPEs have been deployed to Western Province as of yesterday.
The Rapid Response Teams are already on the ground in the Western Province and initiating the contact tracing.
The recent case in the NCD is a member of the Joint Agency Task Force who was tested positive and since been isolated and quarantined. We have begun contact tracing as well.
In the NCD there are 500,000 PPEs available and 3,100 UTMs. These are sufficient for the NCD.
In the East New Britain Province, 500 swabs and UTMs have been deployed with an additional 1,000 on its way. 47 cartons of PPE has already been deployed to the province as well.
For Western and East New Britain Provinces we are emphasising on home quarantine. For this I must thank the community and their leaders for supporting the Government in ensuring that this quarantine adhered to.
As has been the norm in our previous cases we have locked down the Joint Agency Task Force National Operations Centre to carry out testing of all our staff as part of the standard operating procedures.
To the people of PNG I urged you all to remain calm. Stop worrying and start seriously practicing the health messages we have been advocating. If you faithfully observe these instructions you will protect yourself and your family and stop the spread of COVID-19.
These prevention health messages include:
1.Washing your hands
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- Covering your mouth with our elbow when coughing
- Not touching you mouth, nose and eyes
- Practising social distancing
- Don’t go to crowded places and
- If you have no reasons to move around please Stay home.
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