The wave is coming, says top medico
30 March 2020
KEITH JACKSON
PORT MORESBY – Dr Mathias Sapuri, chairman of Papua New Guinea’s medical board, says he believes that coronavirus is already present in the country.
“Our two closest neighbours, Indonesia and Australia, are climbing exponentially with Covid-19 cases,” he said, “and so they are serious risk to us especially after the PNG lock down period.
“My assessment is that the virus is possibly in PNG among our nationals already.
“Currently there is no evidence among our nationals. This is because we are not doing blood tests or many swab tests on more than 6,000 plus persons of interest to pick up cases.”
Dr Sapuri said PNG does not have the blood tests, antigen tests or swab tests for effective testing for the disease.
“Our significant risk in PNG relates to co-morbidities like malaria, TB, infectious diseases, cancers, chronic medical conditions.
“These are vulnerable people in our country that Covid-19 infection could lead to mortality,” he said.
“Let's not be complacent but continue to work together. The wave is coming.”
Do you really believe governments care?
One death is a tragedy and a million is a statistic - Josef Stalin.
The creative destruction of COVID-19 is merely paving the way for a more intense and dystopian version of capitalism.
Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That's how it goes
Everybody knows
Everybody knows that the boat is leaking
Everybody knows the captain lied
Everybody got this broken feeling
Like their father or their dog just died
Leonard Cohen
Posted by: Bernard Corden | 30 March 2020 at 02:21 PM
This is disturbing news. I thought PNG was winning the war to keep the virus out of the country, but a figure of 6000 persons of interest who are apparently not undergoing testing seems very concerning.
I wonder what it takes for a person to make it into the category of "person of interest"? Is it someone who is showing signs and symptoms, or is it just someone who has recently flown into the country?
I also wonder what is being done to isolate those 6000 people from the communities and in which provinces are they located?
More questions than answers.
Posted by: Ian Ritchie | 30 March 2020 at 07:45 AM