Covid-19 cases increasing

By LULU MARK
BORDER provinces of West Sepik and Western are experiencing a spike in Coronavirus (Covid-19) cases with more than 30 confirmed between them on Wednesday, an official says.
Covid-19 National Control Centre (NCC) incident manager Dr Melinda Susapu said 43 new cases were reported on that day with West Sepik reporting 20, Western 14, National Capital District 5, East New Britain 2 and Enga and Southern Highlands one each.
She said the total number of cases in PNG as of Wednesday was 18,339 of which 194 died, 351 cases were still active and 17,794 recovered.
Dr Susapu said so far the country reported 30 Delta variant cases of which Western recorded 22, National Capital District 7 and Madang 1 and the samples of 79 cases reported last week were still waiting the genome sequencing results.
She said another 83 samples were sent for genome sequencing on Monday.
NCC recorded a total of 18,091 cases on Sept 1 and seven days later 18,091, with that figure increasing to 18,339 on Wednesday – 248 cases in a week.
Dr Susapu said some provinces were not reporting on time and the testing was slow but the positive rate was slowly increasing.
She said it had been observed that an increase in influenza-like infections and acute respiratory infections resulted in the subsequent increase in the Covid-19 cases.
Covid-19 National Pandemic Response deputy controller Dr Daoni Esorom said to bring down the waiting time for the results of genome sequencing from Australia, the Papua New Guinea Institute of Medical Research would be supported to do genome sequencing in-country by next month.
“The Delta variant is going to spread very fast,” he said.
“It won’t be long and people will be dying.
“Countries around the world although with high vaccination coverage were hit hard and for PNG the vaccination level is very low.
“People need to start listening.
“Stop crowded events, crossing the border and get the vaccine.”
Dr Daoni said the vaccine would not protect you from getting the Covid-19 and its Delta variant but it would prevent you from going to the hospital or dying.