Thursday  25 November, 2021

Deputy Controller of the National Pandemic, Dr Esorom Daoni, has repeatedly urged people to  get vaccinated  to protect them against COVID-19.

His remarks  followed  the  drop in   numbers of people going for vaccination in    November, compared to  an increase in the   number of people going for vaccination in  the month of October.

This seems to be linked to the drop in the number of COVID-19 cases being reported this month as compared to the month of October.

As of today, (25 November, 2021), a total of 272, 141 have received at least one dose of a  COVID-19 vaccine which is 14.6 per cent of the target population of 1, 869, 279 for 2021.

Those fully vaccinated stand at 201, 318 which is 10.8 per cent of the target population for 2021.

The three vaccines being administered in PNG are AstraZeneca Oxford, Johnson and Johnson and Sinopharm.

So far, a total of 359, 659 doses of the three vaccines have been administered of which 227, 858 (63.4%) were for AstraZeneca, 113, 800 (31.6%)  for Johnson and Johnson and 18, 001 (5%)  for Sinopharm.

Dr Daoni has expressed his concern over the behavior of the people towards COVID-19.

“This virus will not go away on its own; people  have to do their part and the most effective weapon against it is the vaccine, including adhering to the Niupela Pasin strategies and interventions.

 “A lot of people came to get vaccinated when they saw the cases increasing and people dying, but when the numbers went down, the number of people coming for vaccination also dropped,’’ said Dr Daoni.

“This really reflects the general behavior of our people in all health matters. They do  not take preventive measures until something happens to them and they react.

“This is why we had lost so many people in this wave, driven mainly by delta variant.

“ Had people listened and got vaccinated earlier, they would have developed some immunity with the help of the vaccine long before the delta variant arrived.’’

He added: “You can’t get vaccinated today and expect to be protected against the virus in the next few days as some had done and unfortunately did not make it when they got the virus.

“It takes time for the vaccine to work so people have to be smart and get vaccinated now when they’re well and healthy.’’

Despite the number of surges going down,  the number of new cases being reported per day are still high.

As of  Wednesday, 24 November, 2021, there were 102 new cases reported raising the country’s confirmed cases to 34, 707.

There were also 13 new deaths which increased the death toll  to 542.