Instead of responding immediately, the Chinese authorities reprimanded Dr Li and suppressed the information. But the warning began to circulate on the internet as more people died, including health workers.

The authorities couldn't hide the deadly invasion of the virus that was named covid-19.

But sadly, Dr Li, the-whistleblower, himself got infected with the virus and died.

As the news about covid-19 spread around the world, few countries paid significant attention. The virus didn’t mind. It spread rapidly killing people by the thousands.

Yesterday there had been nearly three million cases recorded and over 200,000 deaths. And these figures are considered to be gross under-estimates.

Gradually countries awoke from their complacency and began to action, including Papua New Guinea.

Although scientists identified covid-19 as a strand of the known corona group of viruses, it is a new strain unbeknownst to medical science and there is no known vaccine to prevent it or medicine that can treat and cure it.

The world is now scrambling to develop a vaccine and find effective treatments. While the scrambling goes on, the virus keeps spreading leaving thousands of dead in its wake.

Most recently South America and Africa are falling before its fast-growing spread.

The Marape-Steven government in PNG - which suffers under extremely poor health and economic conditions - has done what it thinks is best while learning to limit the transmission of this killer virus.

So far PNG has registered only 8 confirmed cases of covid-19 with no deaths. But that does not mean we should be complacent.

Singapore’s infection rate was amongst the lowest in the world a month back. Now infections have skyrocketed with high rates of death.

In PNG, instead of grumbling and throwing mud at the prime minister and his team, it’s time to offer positive ideas as to how best we can prevent mass infection as we transit from lockdown to partial normalcy.

In Simbu a group of renowned volunteers, of which I am a member, has come up with a simple and cost saving transmission risk minimisation concept that we believe can become very beneficial in the event of a partial restoration of normalcy.

The concept, which I cannot discuss in detail here, is now with the chairman of the Simbu Provincial Covid-19 Response Committee and state of emergency controller Michael Bal Temai. He has taken ownership of the idea as a pilot project for Simbu Province.

I understand the proposal has reached the Prime Minister's Department. Although it has the ability to expand to other provinces, we believe it must first be adopted in Simbu where the idea was born.