Thursday 24 September 2020
The Controller of the National Pandemic Response, Mr David Manning, has called on all citizens to watch out for symptoms of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and get tested at the earliest.
The symptoms of COVID-19 include fever, cough, sore throat, shortness of breath or difficulty in breathing. Some have muscle aches, chills, headache and chest pain.
“Those with COVID-19 symptoms should go to the nearest health facility so they can be tested.
“In Port Moresby, they can also avail of the drive-thru testing facility managed by St John Ambulance,” says Mr Manning.
The call by the Controller comes at a time when Papua New Guinea has recorded 531 confirmed cases with the National Capital District (NCD) having the highest confirmed cases of 315 as of Thursday 24 September 2020.
The Controller also called on health facilities throughout the country to do more swabbing according to the testing strategy and send the samples to laboratories.
Even though there was no reported COVID-19 case in the last 24 hours, Mr Manning expressed concern that people are getting complacent.
“We need to conduct more tests to determine the extent of the outbreak in the country and minimize the spread of the virus in our communities,” Mr Manning said.
To date, of the 23,777 persons tested for coronavirus in PNG, 23,246 have turned negative. There are 118 samples pending laboratory results.
Of the confirmed cases, 516 persons have recovered whilst death from COVID-19 remains at seven.
The country has reported cases from 13 provinces:
Provinces | Confirmed cases |
NCD | 315 |
Western Province | 189 |
Central | 7 |
Morobe | 5 |
East Sepik | 3 |
West New Britain | 3 |
East New Britain | 2 |
Milne Bay | 2 |
Southern Highlands | 1 |
Eastern Highlands | 1 |
West Sepik | 1 |
New Ireland | 1 |
Autonomous Region of Bougainville | 1 |
Globally, the total confirmed cases have reached 32,055,655 and the death toll stands at 980,315.
There was an increase of 285,584 confirmed cases in the last 24 hours.
In the Western Pacific region, a total of nine countries/territories had confirmed cases in the last 24 hours, bringing the total confirmed cases for the region to 591,319 cases and 12,864 deaths.
Media contact: Chief Superintendent Dominic D. Kakas, BEM, DPS
COVID-19 Media & Public Information Joint Agency Task Force
Mobile: 75430557 email: ddkakas@gmail.com
Police email: ddkakas.policemedia@gmail.com
COVID-19 JATF email: ddkakas.covid19media@gmail.com