Protecting PNG from an escalating COVID-19 outbreak is urgent business for Australia miragenews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from miragenews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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SYDNEY, March 15 (Reuters) - Half of COVID-19 tests from the Pacific island nation of Papua New Guinea (PNG) processed by Australia have been positive, the leader of Queensland state said on Monday, prompting calls for faster vaccine delivery.
PNG’s Western Province lies within a few kilometres (miles) of Australia’s northern border, and Queensland laboratories are assisting to investigate the worsening outbreak.
Queensland state Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said Papua New Guinea was “on the doorstep” and she held real concern about the rising infection rate there.
“Out of the 500 tests that our health authorities have done for PNG, 250 have come back positive,” Palaszczuk told reporters on Monday.
Papua New Guinea facing COVID-19 crisis as infection rate rises reuters.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from reuters.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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After almost a year of successfully preventing a large-scale outbreak of COVID-19, the Pacific Island nation of Papua New Guinea (PNG) is currently on the brink of disaster, health experts have warned.
Testing in PNG remains critically low, with just 2,051 tests taken in the first week of March from an estimated population of 9 million people. The World Health Organization found that from that, 17 percent tested positive for COVID-19. Confirmed cases have been reported in 17 of PNG’s 22 provinces.
Since March 7, the last release of a WHO Situation Summary Report, things have only gotten worse. Confirmed cases of the virus have spiked in recent days, with the seven-day average rising to 87 new infections each day. Ninety new cases were reported on March 13.
The Pacific island nation of Papua New Guinea (PNG) is facing a fresh wave of COVID-19 infections around the capital Port Moresby, which neighbouring Australia and aid groups fear could overwhelm the country's small and overstretched health system. The Pacific Friends of Global Health warned if health services are overwhelmed by COVID-19 the treatment of malaria, HIV and tuberculosis would also collapse. Half the COVID-19 tests from PNG processed by Australia have been positive, prompting calls for faster vaccine delivery.