The Papua New Guinea government said on Tuesday it would restrict movement without imposing a total blockade, as coronavirus infections in the Pacific country soared.
On Tuesday, PNG reported 82 positive cases in 91 tests processed in one day, prompting the Australian state of Queensland to suspend charter flights from the OK Tedi copper and gold mine, one of the country’s largest employers.
Of the 500 most recent smears obtained from PNG residents by Australian health professionals, 250 of them were positive, according to Queensland health officials.
James Marape, the prime minister, warned that the country’s official total of 2,269 cases of Covid-19, including 26 deaths, was an insufficient count as it was based on those who attended the test.
Only 54,410 of PNG’s 9 million inhabitants have been tested, said superintendent police chief Dominic Kakas, spokesman for the country’s Covid-19 task force.
“The community transmission took place. He broke free. We need to contain it so that it doesn’t spread any more, ”said Marape.
“If no [take a] proactive response to this, our health care system will be clogged and we may not be able to sustain the outbreak that is now occurring. “
He said health officials are analyzing “city by city or city and town, province by province, preventing people from entering and leaving”.
The country’s maritime borders with Australia and the Solomon Islands have been closed.
Marape asked people to stay in their districts and villages. He said the police and military will ensure that people and public transport follow public health measures.
There are concerns about the increase in cases after mass meetings were held over the weekend to honor Sir Michael Somare, the first prime minister of PNG, who died last month.
Australian officials, who managed PNG affairs until independence in 1975, said they were monitoring the progress of the virus. Scott Morrison, the Australian prime minister, said that vaccines were being rushed to PNG to inoculate frontline health workers.
“I am very concerned about the situation in PNG and we are watching this closely and actively,” said Dr. Paul Kelly, Australia’s medical director, on Tuesday.
He said the vaccination started in the Torres Strait, which separates the two countries. “At the moment, they are vaccinating on Saibai Island, one of the Torres Strait islands very close to the mainland of PNG,” said Kelly.