Today marks 22 days since the declaration of the state of emergency on Sunday, 22nd of March.
The SOE Controller says more of our domestic ports should be opening up by this week, but under strict guidelines.
When giving his update, state of emergency controller, David Manning, said while more domestic ports will open, the Joint Agency Task Force will continue to be the only committee to give authorisation for flight schedules.
“I’d like to take this time to remind our airlines to continue to observe the approval process and the observance to COVID-19 restrictions,” Manning said. “In particular to physical distancing, hand sanitisers and masks.”
Furthermore, those wishing to travel will have to go through an online application process. A website (covid19.info.gov.pg) is expected to be operational sometime this week to cater for that.
“And again, I beg for the understanding and patience of all our travelling passengers on our domestic flights. It is a work in progress but it will be made available for ease of applying for domestic travel.”
Manning further issued a reminder on the five categories of domestic travel that includes:
- Students returning to their usual place of residence or returning to their educational institution;
- Citizens returning to their usual place of residence;
- Essential services;
- Essential exempted business travel and;
- Emergency flights, including but not limited to the repatriation of deceased persons.
“So those are the five categories that we’re using at this point – under the controlled environment – to assess reasons for approving the uplift of passengers,” Manning said.
(State of emergency controller, David Manning, with his second in command, Dr Paison Dakulala)