NCD reports six new cases of COVID-19

Saturday 29 August 2020

The  National Capital District reported six new cases of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the last 24 hours.

This now brings the total confirmed cases in the country to 459. Of this 274 is from the NCD.

The six new cases include a 52-year-old health worker, one student and one teacher who are all from different schools.

Controller of the National Pandemic Response Mr David Manning said of the six cases, there were three  males  and three  females.   Only two of these cases were symptomatic.

Furthermore, these six cases were from  among  the 307 samples that were collected in the five health clinics and testing sites in NCD in the past week.

These are the Rita Flynn Isolation Facility which collected the most samples of 236, followed by Gerehu Hospital with 31, Taurama Aquatic Drive-Through – 20; Rapid Response Teams -14; and Pacific International Hospital – 6.

The other provinces that had sent samples for testing in the past week apart from NCD were Autonomous Region of Bougainville (207) which collected 207, Morobe (160); Manus (55), Western Highlands (41), East New Britain (30) , Milne Bay (28) , Eastern Highlands (23) , Enga (19) , West Sepik (12) , Chimbu (7), Jiwaka (7), Western (6), New Ireland (5) , Madang (4) and Central (3).

Five provinces that did not send any samples were West New Britain, Southern Highlands, Oro, Hela and Gulf.

“The Central Province, which sent only three samples and Gulf,  which sent none are expected to do more testing as their people have easy access to NCD and are likely to acquire the virus in the city which is experiencing community transmission.

“However, the spread of the virus cannot be shown if the testing rates continue to be very low in the two provinces,’’  Mr Manning said.

During  the National Emergency and the lockdowns , there were orders sent out, one of which was instructing health facilities to test    people presenting with Influenza-like illnesses, Severe Acute Respiratory Illnesses and pneumonia. as suspects for COVID-19 by testing them for the virus.

“Unless this is done we will not know the extent of the prevalence of COVID-19 in the country. The number of specimens being received at the laboratories has decreased this month. This is a reflection of the decrease in testing,’’ Mr Manning said.

Meanwhile, the number of cases globally continues to rise. As of today, a total of 24,886,685 confirmed cases and 840,410 deaths were reported. Of this, there was an increase of 272,161 confirmed cases in the last 24 hours.

In the Western Pacific region where PNG sits, a total of 5,726 new cases were reported in 13 countries or areas in the region. This has brought the total confirmed cases to 481,696 confirmed cases and a death toll of 10,413 in the region.

There were also 120 deaths confirmed  in five countries in the region which were Australia (11), Hong Kong (3), Japan (12), Philippines (91) and Korea (3).

Indonesia’s two provinces – Papua and West Papua – have both reported 26 and 6 new cases respectively in the last 24 hours, bringing the total confirmed cases in the two provinces to 4,461. The death toll for the two provinces remains at 54.

 

Media contact: Chief Superintendent Dominic D. Kakas, BEM, DPS
COVID-19 Media & Public Information Joint Agency Task Force
Mobile: 75430557: Email: ddkakas@gmail.com

Please share