Covid-19 patients flood hospital

WESTERN’S Daru Hospital is inundated with Coronavirus (Covid-19) patients and has stopped admission since Tuesday with the number of infections rising fast, National Control Centre (NCC) incident manager Dr Melinda Susapu says.
“Nine deaths and 136 new Covid-19 cases were reported in Western from Sept 9 to Monday,” she said.
National Pandemic Response Deputy Controller Dr Daoni Esorom said 80 Covid-19 patients were admitted in the hospital and it had no more beds for patients.
“The doctor who is currently looking after the Emergency Department and the clinical services there is currently in a critical situation and we are planning to medevac her to Port Moresby,” he said.
“We are pretty sure that is the Delta variant.
“The symptoms are quite peculiar and specific to Delta.”
He said for just Covid-19, on average people had symptoms (dry cough, fever, headache, joint ache and flu like symptoms) between five and seven days but for the Delta, the symptoms come early between three and four days but both have the same incubation period of 14 days.
He said the Delta was also 50 to 70 per cent more transmittable, so the infection spreads faster to many more people if there was no physical distancing and adherence of the Niupela Pasin (New Normal).
“We will see more cases in Western (and) we are now also seeing it spreading in West Sepik and we will see more of it there. If the people are not careful, we might see a severe surge and outbreak that can easily get out of control and we will see many more deaths.
“Many provinces, including West New Britian, East New Britain, the National Capital District, Morobe, West Sepik and Western have been recording an increase in the number of influenza-like illnesses since June. And seeing the Delta surge in Western, we anticipate a surge in the other provinces as well.
“All provinces are still at ‘low rsk’ of Delta infection, except Western and West Sepik which have been upgraded to ‘medium risk’. With the public health protocols, so we anticipate an upgrade in the risk in provinces in the next few weeks and months.”