Govt seeking more vaccines

By LULU MARK
PRIME Minister James Marape says the system to deliver Covid-19 vaccines to health facilities and hospitals in the provinces should be established as soon as possible.
During the first online meeting with the chief executive officers of the country’s 22 provincial health authority (PHA) and other stakeholders last Thursday, Marape said the Government was working to mobilise additional vaccines.
“I have already dispatched letter and I am thankful WHO (World Health Organisation) and Department of Foreign Affairs partners are sensitive to the need for additional vaccines and we are working to mobilise additional vaccines,” he said.
“When more supply of vaccines come, vaccines must go out to those who need it, those who want vaccines, especially in the first instance – all our health workers they need to be vaccinated.”
Marape said the Health Department was working on a programme to ensure that the 8,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from Australia were mobilised firstly for health workers.
“Our health workers must identify their candidates who need this vaccine and the Health Department will find a way to send the vaccines out of Port Moresby to those PHAs and the frontline workers,” he said.
“At least 6,000 to 7,000 must go out to the health workers.
“The other 1,000 or so will be kept for those who are essential workers who keep the economy running.”
Marape said the provincial control centres were subsidiaries of the National Control Centre which should have been set up last year and the key persons in it were the provincial police commanders, provincial administrators and PHA chief executive officers (CEO).
He said the PHA CEOs presents to the provincial government what needed to be done in terms of additional resources or policing of strategies and Waigani controlled the standards and vaccines in this response.