Conduct more awareness

FROM the outside, we can see there is still confusion about which authority is in charge of dealing with Covid-19.
The Health Department, by law, is the authority on public health matters and all other technical matters.
We have their partners NCDC, St John Ambulance, World Health Organisation, police and non-government associations.
In such situations, when coronavirus is killing people in tens of thousands across the globe, the think we don’t want to see in PNG is divisions, duplications, disorientation and confusion.
It is the responsibility of the Government to safeguard the health, safety and security of the people.
The authority to execute the Government’s strategy in combat ing Covid-19 is the Health Department.
Since the outbreak, facebook medical doctors have mushroomed all over PNG.
We blame the Health Department for causing all this confusion.
People are still not taking heed of the Government’s warning.
We have not prepared our people well in the event of a mass case presentation in the city and elsewhere.
Public health strategies are lacking and may have failed.
The Health Department should be held accountable for not doing enough.
This is serious and it is not to be taken as a joke nor should it be ignored.
We want the Health Department to step up on public health.
It should be prepared at all fronts in consultation with other key agencies like the Department of Information and Communication.
They should jointly develop a public health awareness media strategy and go on a massive Covid-19 public health awareness using all media platform.
As a concerned citizen, I appeal to the PM to replace the secretaries for the Health Department and the Department of Communication and Information Technology for being incompetent and lacking proper leadership skills during such emergency times.
They are not worth the chair and pen in those offices.
Citizens will soon panic and the situation will be chaotic if no proper public awareness is carried out.

Kep Luma,
Concerned citizen