Marape urges public to stay home, follow measures, be safe

STAY home if you are not doing anything is the simple message Prime Minister James Marape wants the people to heed after the country’s Covid-19 positive cases surpassed 10,000 with 99 reported deaths over the past three months.
“If you are not doing anything, stay home, return to the village and work the land, avoid crowded places,” he said.
“You need to be sensitive with your actions.
“Meaning, you should avoid crowded places, be masked, wash hands and remain 1.5 metres away from each other.
“There are 100,000 vaccines in the country and we are pleased with their arrival.
“I have challenged leaders at all levels to use the downtime to address serious pandemic measures in their own electorates and districts.
“Our people also need to be informed correctly on these issues and therefore, we should all work together to address any information disconnect that exists in the country.
“It is not about politics.
“I noted that positivity rate is now running at 25 per cent and case fatality at 5 per cent.
“This indicates that if we ramp up on testing, we expect to see at least 25 per cent of the testing population to be positive and of those positive cases, at least 5 per cent of them will die.
“If this trajectory is maintained, this is no longer a matter to ignore.
“Hospital capacities are now overwhelmed.
“I call for a total and complete leadership attention to this matter.
“I appeal to those who have ambition to be ministers or prime minister to put aside personal interests and rally with the Government to address in totality the raging pandemic before us.
“The safety of our people is at stake while we worry about our own interest.”