Sunday 8 November 2020
The National Control Centre (NCC) for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) response has dispatched a team to Hela Province to support the provincial health teams in case investigation, contact tracing and collection of samples for testing.
Controller of the National Pandemic Response, David Manning, said Hela Province reported its first case this week and health workers from the National Department of Health (NDOH) would work closely with counterparts in scaling up surveillance and testing to prevent further spread of the virus.
“To date, Papua New Guinea has 599 COVID-19 cases, including seven deaths.”
Mr Manning added that 29,466 people have been tested for coronavirus, with additional 66 samples pending laboratory results.
Of the total COVID-19 cases, 585 people have recovered whilst there are seven active cases that are being isolated.
Fifteen provinces (including the Autonomous Region of Bougainville) have confirmed COVID-19 cases:
| Provinces | Confirmed Cases |
| NCD | 346 |
| Western Province | 203 |
| Eastern Highlands | 13 |
| West New Britain | 10 |
| Central | 7 |
| Morobe | 5 |
| East Sepik | 3 |
| Milne Bay | 2 |
| East New Britain | 2 |
| Enga | 2 |
| New Ireland | 2 |
| West Sepik | 1 |
| Southern Highlands | 1 |
| AROB | 1 |
| Hela Province | 1 |
Globally, since the start of the outbreak, there have been a total 50,247,297 confirmed cases and the death toll stands at 1,225,628.
There was an increase of 598,002 confirmed cases in the last 24 hours.
In the Western Pacific Region, a total of 14 countries/territories had confirmed cases in the last 24 hours, bringing the total confirmed cases for the region to 765,219 cases and 15,938 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