As of Thursday July 22, Papua New Guinea recorded 43 new COVID-19 cases, increasing the total number of cases to 17,637 with 192 known deaths. No new deaths have been reported recently.
Madang and Western Highlands Province (WHP) reported the highest of 15 cases each followed by Manus with five cases. East New Britain reported four cases, Southern Highlands two cases whilst New Ireland and Jiwaka reported a single case each.
Of the 43 cases, 31 were male and 12 were female ranging between the ages of 17 and 72 years.
At the time of testing, 22 cases were experiencing symptoms of COVID-19.
The cases from the Madang where a localized outbreak is going on within a guard-dog compound in the Ramu area and make up 33% of the total number diagnosed.
25% of cases were those diagnosed in the last 6-14 days before the 22nd, while 42% were from over 30 days ago. From the cases diagnosed more than 30 days ago, 83% of them were from WHP and were reported to have been diagnosed more than (2) months ago.
The country’s total cumulative recoveries stands at 17,222. To date, 143,687 people have tested for COVID-19.
Since the vaccination program rolled out in May this year, 74,771 people have received the first dose of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. This includes:
- 8,447 health workers;
- 48,693 essential workers; and
- 17,631 with comorbidity.
So far 83,123 doses have been administered with 74,771 persons receiving at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, with 8,352 people having been fully vaccinated.