The lack of leadership is evident on ground, with health workers getting attacked while no COVID-19 data is available for public consumption.
President of Nursing Association Morobe, Siling Awasa, said the provincial administration, health and city authorities and law enforcement need to work together.
She was speaking after her health workers at West Taraka were attacked during a routine immunisation drive on Friday.
“All of us need to work together to mitigate the spread of this virus,” said Sister Awasa.
“And we the nurses, we’re the frontline. We’re the ones who are doing everything there on the ground.
“So if our nurses are affected, we will make sure that we take a stand to make sure the authorities come down hard to address the social issues that we are experiencing in the community.”
The nurses stressed that they have been working with little support since the beginning of the pandemic.
A lack of awareness on COVID-19 and vaccination has increased security issues for the health workers, who are being forced to forgo their immunisation drive for an indefinite period. This will mean that children will not be getting immunised against diseases such as polio, measles and whooping cough.
CEO of Morobe Provincial Health Authority, Dr Kipas Binga, is yet to outline a clear strategy on awareness and information dissemination for residents.
It is believed a part of the COVID-19 funding was set aside for awareness while nothing has eventuated on ground.
Dr Binga and his administration are yet to make available acquittal reports on how the COVID-19 funding was spent.
(President of Nursing Association Morobe, Siling Awasa)