Newcrest Mining Lihir in the fight against COVID-19 continues to collaborate with the government providing awareness.
The company has been working with all arms of government – the Nimamar Local Level Government, the New Ireland Provincial Health Authority, the National Control Centre and the National Department of Health.
Combined medical teams from the National Control Centre (NCC) for COVID-19 from Port Moresby and New Ireland Provincial Health Authority (NIPHA) were in Lihir recently to conduct advocacy and awareness about COVID vaccines.
The NCC four-member team led by Dr Petronia Kaima and NIPHA’s three-member team led by Dr Frank Apamumu spent 10 days in Lihir meeting with Newcrest employees, and visited communities to give talks and answering questions raised about COVID-19 and the vaccines.
From an earlier visit led by Deputy Pandemic Controller Dr Esorom Daoni, General Manager Johan Labuschagne of Newcrest Mine Lihir said, “The fight against COVID-19 is everybody’s fight. We are all in this together, and as such, we will continue to support and work with all levels of government to get the message out about COVID-19 and the vaccine.’’
Due to bad weather, the team could not travel to the outer Lihir islands to do awareness but were able to cover most of the Newcrest workforce and villages of Putput 2 and Londolovit on Aniolam Island.
“We hope to come back and cover the outer islands, Mallie, Mahur and Masahet as they are also part of Lihir. When people move, the virus moves, and we have people moving in and out of Lihir all the time,” Marengas said.
Apamumu said more than 50 people have been admitted to the COVID-19 Ward at the Kavieng Hospital. “We have a new COVID Ward in Kavieng that has been in use since 8th of October, and so far, we have seen 8 people die from COVID. None of the 8 were vaccinated,” said Apamumu.
During the discussions, one of the main questions asked by members of the community was if the vaccine is safe.
“My job as a health worker is to give facts and educate about the virus and the vaccine. The vaccine is safe. More than 2,800 people in New Ireland have been vaccinated and out of these, none experienced any major side effects, and no one has died from taking the vaccine,” Apamumu said.