Wednesday 4 November 2020
To boost preparedness and capacity to respond to coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, teams of experts from the National Control Centre (NCC) were deployed this week to East New Britain and New Ireland Provinces.
Technical teams from the National Department of Health (NDOH), Central Public Health Laboratory (CPHL) and World Health Organization (WHO) are working with provincial counterparts to improve surveillance and contact tracing, enhance hospital preparedness and increase testing.
They also met with local counterparts and business leaders to better engage the public and communities to adapt the Niupela Pasin and maintain vigilance on COVID-19 prevention measures.
“The provincial authorities are critical in managing our response to COVID-19. As we continue to see cases being reported, and new province being affected, we must ensure all our provinces are prepared. Stay vigilant and do not let your guard down,” said National Pandemic Controller David Manning.
In the coming weeks, multi-disciplinary teams from the NCC composed of experts on surveillance, laboratory, case management, infection prevention, risk communication, community engagement and Niupela Pasin will also be deployed to other provinces to further scale up local capacities.
To date, PNG has 597 COVID-19 cases, with seven deaths. The National Capital District has the highest with 345 cases followed by Western Province with 203 cases.
PNG has tested 29,466 people for coronavirus, with additional 392 samples pending laboratory results. There have been 581 people who have recovered from COVID-19 whilst nine active cases are currently being isolated.
Fifteen provinces (including the Autonomous Region of Bougainville) have confirmed COVID-19 cases:
| Provinces | Confirmed Cases |
| NCD | 345 |
| 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 |
| West Sepik | 1 |
| New Ireland | 1 |
| Southern Highlands | 1 |
| AROB | 1 |
| Hela Province | 1 |
Globally, since the start of the outbreak, there have been a total 47,834,542 confirmed cases and the death toll stands at 1,219,686. There was an increase of 480,661 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 747,674 cases and 15,706 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