Over 5,000 Covid cases noted

By LULU MARK
MORE than 5,000 Covid-19 cases have been reported between March 1 and April 4 and provinces must step up responses, an official says.
During the daily Covid-19 update yesterday, the National Control Centre (NCC) deputy incident manager Dr Melinda Susapu said the country’s total Covid-19 cases was 7,634, which included 68 deaths. She said on Tuesday 229 new cases were reported and the latest death was reported from New Ireland which was the second death in that province.
“A total of 5,784 cases were reported between March 1 and April 4 which is the highest reported within a month at any one time,” she said. Dr Susapu said the hotspot provinces were the National Capital District, Western, West Sepik, West New Britain and East New Britain.
She said the NCC was also concerned with the surge in Western Highlands, Central and the Autonomous Region of Bougainville.
“There are national measures but provincial health authorities (PHA) must take the responsibility to ensure that people adhere to the Niupela Pasin,” she said.
Dr Susapu said the Niupela Pasin had been launched 285 days ago and now that there was a surge with ongoing community transmissions, people needed to comply with the basic health measures of wearing masks, sanitising hands regularly, practising physical distancing and avoiding crowded places.
She urged the PHAs to maintain effective communication with NCC reporting on the new cases and their isolation strategies.
Dr Susape said since last year the provinces were facing challenges in establishing intensive care unit facilities and isolation centres and were being made to have those set up, hence communication was key to fighting the pandemic.