Briefs

Shops run out of sanitisers
TWO major pharmacies in the country have confirmed they are running out of hand sanitisers and facemasks in light of the coronavirus outbreak. Johnston’s Pharmacies Ltd and City Pharmacy Ltd confirmed this with The National yesterday. “We have very limited stocks across various branches throughout the country,” CPL managing director Mahesh Patel said. Graham Peter of Johnston’s Pharmacies on the other hand said: “Yes, we have sold everything from hand sanitisers to face masks and antiseptic wipes. We have new orders being placed but we’re not sure of when they are coming in.”

Firm remains confident
CITY Pharmacy Ltd Group chairman Stan Joyce, in the company’s 2019 financial report, said the short-term outlook for the business was modest given the current uncertainty in the business environment which has been further destabalised with the global outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. “We remain confident of the medium term to long term prospects of the market in which we have operated for 33 years,” Joyce said.

Miner: No Covid-19
NEWCREST Mining Ltd has confirmed that no cases of coronavirus (Covid-19) were detected at its Lihir gold mine, as speculated on social media. Lihir general manager operations Chris Jordaan said two employees, a Papua New Guinea national and an Australian expatriate had been placed in quarantine proactively after presenting with flu-like symptoms. Jordaan said by isolating the two, all necessary precautionary measures had been taken and they would continue to ensure all the employees received the appropriate healthcare.

Police working on response
LAE police say they are liaising with city and provincial authorities to have an adequate emergency response plan in place for the coronavirus. Met Supt Chief Insp Chris Kunyanban said they started discussions with Lae health authorities and the Health Department for police to play a role in the province’s preparedness to deal with Covid-19 if and when it reached PNG and Morobe.