Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)

The country has developed an Emergency Preparedness and Response Plan for COVID-19 that covers 10 key focus areas. The plan outlines key actions at four phases: alert, containment, mitigation and recovery.

“The National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC) continues to coordinate national preparedness measures while Provincial EOCs have already been activated at the provincial levels,” stated the Department.

In a statement, the NRL said it will follow the advice from Federal and State governments.

“This means from Round Two, all games will be played within closed stadiums and spectators will not be allowed to attend Telstra Premiership games until further notice,” NRL stated.

Statistics revealed during the weekly update to media by the World Health Organisation representative in PNG are alarming.

Dr. Luo Dapeng says PNG is at a high risk now because statistics have shown that the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outside of China is faster than within China in recent weeks.

“As of 10am Geneva time, on 1st of March, their office in China they report 79,968 cases of coronavirus 19 to WHO including 2,873 deaths. In the past 24 hours, China reported 579 cases.