July 7, 2020

The  weekly situation    report  compiled by the Department of Health on the country’s  Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19),   covering 26 June to 2 July,   says    the total number of  cases    still remains at 11.

The last case was confirmed on 25 June 2020 in the National Capital District from a female contact of Case#10.

Of the last three cases – case 9, 10 and 11, there has been no recent travel history and to date, there is no indication of the source of infection.

Accordingly, the last three cases identified recently were detected several weeks after their infections, hence,  the risk of   transmission moving forward  during the infectious period of these cases,  is  high,  while the  action of reducing the transmission  measures remains very critical.

The report further highlighted that of the 11 confirmed cases, four had a history of travel to countries with COVID-19 cases, while seven patients had no travel history during their likely period of infection.

A follow up undertaken on known contacts of Case#9   has been concluded, with no direct contacts identified as cases.

In the meantime, monitoring of contacts of Case#10 will end on 10 July while contact identification for Case#11 is ongoing with some contacts already tested.

It is reported that from 26 June to 2 July, the average national daily COVID-19 surveillance reporting rate is only 44.5 percent, this is due to other provinces not submitting their reports for this period.

Meanwhile, the Papua province of Indonesia continues to report COVID-19 cases in areas that border Sandaun and Western provinces in PNG.

While the border is officially closed, the threat of importing the case from Indonesia remains fairly high, according to the report.