Sunday 29 November 2020
West New Britain (WNB) has recorded nine new coronavirus disease (COVID-1) cases over the weekend.
The province’s total COVID-19 cases, as a result, has surged to 51, the third highest after the National Capital District (NCD) which has 354 and Western Province with 204 cases.
Controller of the COVID-19 National Pandemic Response Mr David Manning says six of the new cases are male and three female. The oldest is 63 years old while the youngest is 38 years of age.
Four of them have no symptoms of the virus whilst five experienced cough, diarrhea, fever, sore throat and headache at the time of testing.
He added that the rapid response team of WNB is conducting contact tracing to determine the extent of the outbreak.
The surge team from the National Control Center composed of experts from the National Department of Health (NDOH) and the World Health Organization (WHO) are still in the province to support the provincial counterparts in the response.
Mr Manning also called on the people of PNG to continue to observe the COVID-19 health protocols, adding, people must still wear masks, practise hand sanitising and avoid crowded areas.
“PNG has done far better than many countries and that is being because of the drastic measures taken earlier this year. We cannot let our guard down and must continue to be vigilant,” Mr Manning said.
Meanwhile, the country’s total number of COVID-19 cases has reached 655, including seven known COVID-19 deaths.
At this stage, 16 of the 22 provinces in the country have confirmed cases of COVID-19. The distribution of the cases is as follows:
| Provinces | Confirmed Cases |
| NCD | 354 |
| Western Province | 204 |
| West New Britain | 51 |
| Eastern Highlands | 13 |
| Central | 9 |
| Morobe | 6 |
| East Sepik | 3 |
| Enga | 3 |
| East New Britain | 2 |
| Milne Bay | 2 |
| New Ireland | 2 |
| West Sepik | 2 |
| Southern Highlands | 1 |
| AROB | 1 |
| Hela Province | 1 |
| Western Highlands | 1 |
| TOTAL | 655 |
Globally, the total confirmed cases of COVID-19 has reached 61,299,371, including 747,082 new cases reported in the last 24 hours. The death toll is 1,439,784; of which 13,296 were reported in the last 24 hours.
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