The Papua New Guinea University of Technology is going into a two-week lockdown following the death of two senior academics who believed to have died from COVID-19.
The Senior Management has rescheduled four (4) days of classes into the second half of the semester as the campus goes into lockdown.
One-week classes that were scheduled for Week 7 of Semester One ( Tuesday to Friday this week), will be rescheduled to second semester(Weeks 8-13 of the First Semester).
Next week (12th -16th April) is the mid-semester break as per the university’s academic calendar.
As an interim precautionary measure, the University management has decided to suspend all classes for two weeks and impose a total lockdown. During this period, the university will implement other preventative measures to halt a possible widespread community transmission of Covid-19 on campus.
Interim measures now imposed by the management are:
- Mandatory wearing of mask on Taraka campus by students, staff and dependents. Nobody should be in a public space without a mask.
- Social distancing is now compulsory. Maintenance of 1.5m spacing
- Use of hand sanitising spray or gel regularly
- Area 5 gate will be locked permanently for the 14 days.
- Staff, students and dependents with proper IDs will be allowed through the gates.
- All gates will be locked after 10 pm.
The University has already put in other measures, such as hand sanitizers, hand water basins at all academic departments and service units, and the use of a hybrid mode of conducting classes online.
Other preventative measures and directives will be issued later this week by the University management.
The University Management has appealed to all to comply with these directives and urged all not to be irresponsible and ignorant of the imminent risk faced by the university community.
