Dept scaling up process

THE Health Department is continuously scaling up in its efforts to prevent coronavirus from entering the country, acting Health Secretary Dr Paison Dakulala says.
Dakulala said at the operational level, the national emergency operation centre (NEOC) that was set during the polio outbreak in June 2018, was activated which was followed by the activation of the provincial emergency operation centres.
He said the Government had approved K45 million for the Covid-19 response from which K10 million was for immediate release.
Most of it would go to the provinces.
Dakulala said the department was ensuring preparations were continuously improved both at the national and provincial levels.
He said they were conducting training and equipping the staff with knowledge and tools to deal with Covid-19 when it enters the country.
Dakulala said the provincial health authority (PHA) chief executive officers and management team were in Port Moresby for the National Health Plan 2021-2030 consultation this week and were advised on how the department would step in to further assist them in the Covid-19 response.
He said an 8 bed isolation facility was prepared at the Port Moresby General Hospital (PMGH) but as part of the scaling up process, a separate isolation and quarantine facility would be built in Port Moresby and Lae.
“We are going through process to enable these to be available,” he said.
“So that is already been effected so within a week or so we will be more clearer in terms of the whole structures that we will build and we will get to build them as we go along.
“We know where the place are initially and we will then execute that.
Dakulala said there would be a scale up of preparedness at the ports of entry.
He said the Chinese Embassy had invited the Health Department for a video conference with the team from where the outbreak originated which enabled them to see the measures taken to manage the outbreak.
“We will continue that dialogue with the Chinese government and our minister has also asked for support to come in,” he said.