Health facilities provided equipment to collect virus samples

SEVEN health facilities in the National Capital District have been provided medical equipment and items to collect samples for Covid-19 testing.
United States Ambassador to PNG Erin McKee handed over screening booths, infrared thermometers, digital television screens, disinfectants and hand sanitisers to the NCD Health Authority at the 6-Mile clinic yesterday.
The equipment will be distributed to 20 facilities while the screening booths will be given to seven.
Authority chief executive officer Dr Jerry Tanumei said from the clinics’ pre-triage set up, if the case definition matched that of the Covid-19, the person would go straight to the screening booth for samples to be collected and sent to the laboratory for testing.
“We are in the process of building our capacity and this support came at the right time. We have been advised to expand the sampling sites to more than seven,” he said.
Tanumei thanked the US Government for the support to help in the country’s response to the pandemic. McKee said the assistance was part of the US government’s US$3.5 million (about K12.35 million) investment through the United States Agency for International Development to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in PNG. “We’ve been lucky here that we haven’t seen sustained community transmission and we haven’t seen the rampant spread and deleterious effect that this pandemic has had on communities around the world including my own at home,” she said.