Borders to remain open

By LULU MARK
DESPITE the detection of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) Omicron variant in neighbouring countries, Prime Minister James Marape says borders will remain open for the economy so people should get vaccinated.
Marape said even though the Covid-19 situation had stabalised, Papua New Guineans could not afford to be complacent.
He was responding to questions by The National on the Omicron variant and what the Government was doing to increase the vaccination coverage in PNG because according to the Covid-19 National Control Centre, of the 1.8 million target for vaccination this year, the coverage was only 11 per cent.
Marape said the strategy deployed last year was when the country had no Covid-19.
“We tried to be defensive but now that the Covid-19 is here and is prevalent, we changed our strategy to make sure that people get vaccinated,” he said. “There are mutations and the Covid-19 is abound here in our country.”
Marape said Papua New Guinea was presently one of a few countries in the world that had the lowest vaccination rates. He said, despite this, the Government was pushing on with its vaccination voluntary programme and was also weighing the risk of lockdowns on the health of the population and the impact on the economy.
“Because of the economy we kept the country open but it’s a fine line between keeping our economy open and being responsible to our people’s health,” he said.
“We are ensuring that vaccines are available in our health system so that people can get vaccinated.
“We are encouraging all to be vaccinated.”
Marape said despite Omicron detected in Australia, PNG’s borders would remain open.
“Those who come into our country are coming to a place where the Covid-19 is already widespread so there is no relevance in us closing the borders.”
However, Marape said those who were coming in needed to be vaccinated and go through mandatory testing and checks.
He urged Papua New Guineans to get vaccinated as the vaccines were safe and effective.