Shadow Minister for Health, Elias Kapavore has condemned the calls made by Health Minister, Jelta Wong on COVID-19 related deaths in the country.
He argued that COVID-19 statistics was picked up from 'COVID-19 status in PNG.com’ dated November 4, 2021. Kapavore clarified that PNG registered 30,036 COVID-19 cases with 385 deaths.
“So looking at these statistics, one can calculate that more than 29,000 recovered or 98 percent recovery rate.
“I am not anti-vaccine, but I am against the' No Jab, No Job Policy' especially when we are seeing increasing number of public institutions also adhering to the same.
“I support voluntary vaccinations as announced by the Prime Minister on the floor of Parliament. We adhere to the Niupla Pasin protocols and respect the rights of our citizens who do not wish to be vaccinated.
“This is the view also from the Chief Ombudsman, Richard Pagan.”
Kapavore also made mention of the need to give similar priorities to other prevailing health issues such as the long outstanding National Health Plan 2021-2030, that is yet to be launched.
“Non-communicable diseases such as cancer and TB remain critical concerns as silent killers in our country,” he stressed.
In 2020, PNG recorded 12,159 cancer cases with 7276 deaths according to PNG World Health Organization Global 2020 report. The highest number of cases being from breast and cervical cancers respectively.
According to World Vision 2020 report, PNG has the highest prevalence of TB in the world and second in the Western Pacific Region recording 30,000 new cases every year with more than 3000 deaths.
“These are matters of national interest and nothing political,” Kapavore added.