By COURTNEY MIRUPASI
THE acting Prime Minister Soroi Eoe has confirmed that the female doctor (name withheld) from Daru Hospital that passed away in Port Moresby last week had not taken any vaccination.
He said that her death is extremely sad and unfortunate given her role and work in the medical field, but now the question of her decision to not get vaccinated raises the issue for frontline workers given the high risk of contracting COVID-19.
“It is a very sad because as a doctor she has had to sacrifice to save others. I think there now lays the issue of whether to get vaccinated or not. For frontline workers I urge you to get vaccinated because there is no other way you can protect yourself if you are constantly at the forefront fighting this fight. So please nurses, doctors, health workers, wherever you are whatever you’re doing-get vaccinated.”
He also confirmed that her death was caused by COVID-19 and is now a statistic that is added to the 15 or so frontline workers who have died from contracting this virus.
Pandemic Controller David Manning who was also asked earlier today to comment on the death of the late doctor said that the death of another medical professional to COVID-19 is becoming a great concern.
“It is becoming a concern because we’ve always said to protect our health system and that is not only ensuring we have sufficient beds, medicine and wards but also the protection of our medical professionals.”
Manning said that the vaccines available remain optional, and therefore it is up to these health workers to make that decision to take it.
The passing of this senior medical officer is among the recent deaths that have come out of Daru Hospital.
According to National Control Center for COVID-19 there is total of 16 deaths caused by COVID-19 in Western Province, of which 3 have come out of the Daru Hospital in the last two weeks.
Dr. Smith Pinau from Daru Hospital told the Sunday Bulletin that of these 3 that died, they were among 7 severe COVID-19 cases that were brought in recently.
“In Wabag, I saw 7 cases of severe C19 last week where 3 died over the course of 3 days. The same can be said for the situation in Daru where 3 died from similar severe cases. The question of whether the Delta variant was the cause is something for the lab to confirm.”
Deputy Controller of the National Pandemic Response Dr. Daoni Esorom said that it is likely to assume these deaths were caused by the Delta variant however, he did not clarify whether these cases were of people who had been vaccinated or not.
The National Control Center for COVID-19 website has reported that as of 22nd September 2021 there is a total of 30 Delta variant cases, of which Western Province, NCD, West Sepik and West New Britain Provinces are in stage 3 widespread community transmission while all other provinces in PNG remain at localised community transmission (stage 2).
The website also shows that a total of 179, 845 Papua New Guineans are vaccinated, which only accounts for 2.25% of the entire population of PNG and leaves the risk of further transmission amidst the recent surge in cases around the country.
