Tuesday 15 December 2020
New Ireland province has recorded four new Coronavirus (Covid- 19) cases in the last 24 hours.
A 27 year old female nursing officer and a 37 year old male Community Health Worker are among the four who were tested positive.
The third case is a 52 year old male hospital cleaner.
This brings the total positive cases for New Ireland province to six.
Controller of the National Pandemic Response, David Manning, said three of the four cases showed no signs of the virus at the time of testing whilst the fourth person was experiencing shortness of breath.
The country’s total positive cases stand at 729 with eight known deaths.
To date, a total of 36,674 persons have been tested for Coronavirus. 601 people have recovered whilst 61 samples are pending at the laboratories. One hundred and twenty (120) active cases are in isolation.
Sixteen provinces including the Autonomous Region of Bougainville (AROB) have reported cases.
The distribution of the cases is as follows:
| Provinces | Cases |
| NCD | 361 |
| Western Province | 204 |
| West New Britain | 103 |
| Eastern H/lands | 13 |
| Central | 9 |
| Western H/lands | 9 |
| Morobe | 6 |
| New Ireland | 6 |
| East New Britain | 5 |
| East Sepik | 3 |
| Enga | 3 |
| Milne Bay | 2 |
| West Sepik | 2 |
| Southern H/lands | 1 |
| AROB | 1 |
| Hela Province | 1 |
| TOTAL | 729 |
Globally, the total confirmed cases of COVID-19 has reached 71,051,806, including 574,969 new cases reported in the last 24 hours. The death toll is 1,608,648; of which 10,718 were reported in the last 24 hours.
Mr Manning has again appealed to the public to take extra precautions during the festive period.
“Whilst acknowledging that Christmas is a time for people to be with families and loved ones and to celebrate, I urge everyone to adhere to the COVID-19 health protocols,” Mr Manning added.
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