Covid-19 research begins

A NATIONAL Executive Council decision to conduct a Covid-19 antibody research has started in seven provinces.
The study is to help understand the exposure of the population to the coronavirus.
Rapid diagnostic testing is used where positive reading indicates that the person has been exposed to the Covid-19 and a nasal swab is to be collected to exclude current infection.
Deputy director of curative health with the Eastern Highlands health authority Tony Basse said there were only five provinces of interest.
They were Eastern Highlands, East New Britain, Morobe, National Capital District and Western.
The other two were border provinces with Indonesia and the Torres Strait (East and West Sepik and Western).
Basse said since only eight cases were reported in the five provinces with no outbreak left a lot of questions.
He acknowledged effective isolation and contact tracing done in all the provinces, with all results negative.
“Several teams have already been sent out to various parts of these provinces of interest,” he said. “The aim is to see if there is presence of the Covid 19 antibodies in the body. Since some of us were frontline workers without personal protective gear from the beginning, I was the second person in Goroka to be tested and am relieved that I am negative.
“I would urge all health workers in the eight districts of Eastern Highlands to partake in the survey.”
A total of 2,000 samples will be collated from each of those seven provinces.
Yesterday, the Eastern Highlands health authority team was at the University of Goroka and took 44 blood samples and will continue.
UOG Vice-Chancellor, Prof Musawe Sinebare, said: “With the East Sepik governor always advocating for facts supporting the continued lockdown, this is the way forward in terms of research-based evidence. We must ensure that the Covid-19 does not widen the disparities that already exist in our health systems.”