Coronavirus

Health authorities confirmed the country's first two deaths on Tuesday.

During a media conference on Thursday night, Health Minister Dr Culwick Togamana, said they are expecting more cases in the coming days.

He said community transmission was now widespread in the capital Honiara and some provincial areas.

"For the Western Province, a surge in flu-like illness was noted in Rukutu Village where we suspect a recent gathering involving those who travelled from Honiara and may have transmitted Covid-19.

There are 116 people infected on the island - 36 imported and 80 local cases.

Nine new cases have been found in Butaritari Island, prompting the government to advise local authorities to enforce a lockdown.

Several other islands have been placed under strict restrictions - including South Tarawa, Betio, and Buota - to stop the virus from spiralling out of control.

Meanwhile, the government said that from today, fishermen in South Tarawa and Betio would only be allowed to go fishing between 6am and 2pm.

In the last 14 days, 113 people were, with a cumulative 706 Delta cases. The death toll remains at 597.

So far there has been 35,838 recoveries from 36,548 confirmed cases, with only one cumulative case of Omicron.

Meanwhile vaccination rates are still way below expectation with total doses administered at 391, 266. Persons with at least one dose is at 292, 091 which is 15.6 per cent of the expected target, while the number of persons fully vaccinated is 230, 848 which is only 12.3 per cent of the expected target.

Solomon Business Magazine reports Health Minister Culwick Togamana announced the deaths this afternoon along with the latest figures showing 650 cases of Covid-19 as of midday Tuesday.

The two victims were a 51-year-old female and a 59-year-old male who had pre-existing conditions, including diabetes and high-blood pressure before contracting the virus.

They passed away on Monday night at the National Referral Hospital.

The authorities say there are now 2520 active cases in the community.

20 people are in hospital care of whom seven are in intensive care.

The surge in case numbers follows the arrival of the Omicron variant this month and has prompted calls for more testing centres to open as more people show symptoms.

Rapid antigen tests with health professionals are free until at least the end of the month.

Selftests can be bought in pharmacies but their results aren't recognised to be able to get a health pass.

More than 200 new cases were recorded over the weekend with the Prime Minister warning that case numbers would climb as testing continues.

Health Minister Culwick Togamana told the ABC that authorities were facing a major challenge to contain the outbreak.

“The COVID-19 community transmission occurred before we detected the first case, it has already spread,” said Dr Culwick.

He said the country could only do 180 tests every 12 hours and modelling showed that cases could be in the thousands.

This follows the release of the Booster Vaccination Direction by the Pandemic Controller.

OTML Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer, Musje Werror, was the first to receive his booster jab in front of OTML and Tabubil Hospital staff and urged other employees, contractors and members of the community to get their boosters including those that are yet to be vaccinated.

He said COVID-19 is still present and continues to cause challenges in all the countries around the world and the new variants are emerging is affecting the lives of many people.

Controller of the National Pandemic Response, David Manning said ban had become effective as of Friday, 14 January and it means that spectators will not be allowed if a sport requires 100 team members. 
The first case of Omicron in PNG is a 45-year-old expatriate man, who travelled from South Africa. He was diagnosed in Goroka, Eastern Highlands Province on 26th of December 2021.

The Ministry of Education confirmed that the teachers are from Kindergarten, Primary and Secondary schools.

Education Minister, Premila Kumar said some students have been trained to become Covid monitors.

This is a support system created in schools by the Ministry.

Kumar said the students will be supporting teachers in monitoring the health of their classmates and ensuring a safe environment for learning.

It takes to 81 the number of cases in the country, which until this week had had just a handful of people with the virus.

The cases are spread throughout the country with Ontong Java and parts of Guadalcanal in lockdown.

The outbreak began with the illegal entry of a vessel from Papua New Guinea to Ontong Java last week.

That vessel delivered at least 23 cases of Covid-19.

The virus has since spread to Guadalcanal, prompting a lockdown in Honiara that is due to finish tomorrow morning.