THERE will be a reduction in domestic passengers to the three high risk provinces of West Sepik, Western and Eastern Highlands Province.
The only preapproved travel will be for health workers, business travel and students.
This was announced by the Controller of the National Pandemic Response team, David Manning on Friday, September 24.
“There will be zero tolerance for breaking control measures on domestic flights and fines will be imposed on airline and passengers that do not adhere to these safety requirements,” Mr Manning said.
There is welcome news for businesses on international travel he added.
“If you are fully vaccinated and coming from a country that is not deemed to be a high risk country you will be able to enter PNG.
“The only requirement for international travelers will be to undergo a COVID test on arrival. If you return a positive result you will need to complete a 14-day isolation immediately at the traveler’s cost,” Mr Manning said.
He added that there is a remnant concern in PNG where we are dealing with a strain that is different to what was seen 12 months ago.
The strain is proving to be of high transmissibility and the symptom spread faster.
“We have to accept that Covid-19 is already in every region of our country and it is highly likely that includes the Delta variant.
The Minister for Health and HIV/AIDs Jelta Wong also highlighted in a separate statement the same day that the most effective way for the communities to be safe is to be vaccinated.
Their survival is a human right, he said.
He said the Delta strain is a mutation of the original Covid-19 and is more deadly and spreads more quickly than anything we have seen in the pandemic. We do not have the same level of resources as developed countries when it comes to testing and our hardworking and committed work force is doing the best they can with the available resources, Minister Wong said.