50 staff contract Covid

LULU MARK
THE sharp increase in the Coronavirus (Covid-19) cases detected at the Port Moresby General Hospital (PMGH) last week has left 50 staff infected with concerns of more contracting the virus, a doctor says
Director of medical service Dr Kone Sobi said more staff getting infected would impact the workforce and the provision of healthcare.
He said the hospital was not considering a scale down but was monitoring the situation closely.
He said the community could help by getting vaccinated and adhering to the Niupela Pasin.
“We are waiting for the results of the (Omicron) samples sent to Melbourne for genome sequencing to confirm,” he said.
“In the third Delta surge from September-November, the positivity rate increased slowly and as it increased, the admission rate into the hospital increased as well and the severity of the cases was high.
“However, this time despite the high positivity rate that went up in a space of one week, the admission was low and most of the patients had mild symptoms, including the staff.
“Whether it is the original variant, Delta, Omicron or the other variants the hospital treats them the same.”
Sobi said Omicron was generally mild but with its high transmissibility, even though most of the staff had mild symptoms and were isolated, a lot more could be affected and go in for isolation hence affecting the availability of the hospital’s workforce.
He said the hospital would be discussing with the Covid-19 National Control Centre (NCC) to reduce the number of home isolation days from 14 to around five. “If this is the Omicron variant we will have a lot more staff getting infected and will have mild symptoms but will still be required to go for the full isolation period as set by the NCC,” he said.
“With the mild symptoms the staff can isolate at home for few days, recover and return to work so healthcare service is maintained.
“Only NCC can make that decision.
“We are not seeing a lot of admission, but we are continuing to carry out our surveillance and testing activities and escalating our surge response plans while closely monitoring the situation.”
Sobi urged the public to be responsible as the hospital should not get to the point where a scale down of services had to be made.
He said there were a lot of medical conditions apart from Covid-19 that the hospital dealt with.
He said the hospital was prepared but “you just don’t know what might happen or make predictions so we have to prepare for the worst”.