A provincial lockdown has been imposed in East New Britain (ENB) as of this week amidst the upsurge in Covid-29 cases.
Provincial Administrator Wilson Matava said the pandemic has gone out of control with health staff infected, exhausted, isolation facilities full and staff is unable to keep up with the current rate of community transmissions.
“The decision for a provincial lockdown is not an easy decision to reach but it had to be made as the provincial administration and government has a duty of care and responsibility to look after the citizens of the province,” he said.
Residents are being urged to comply with provincial measures and strategies to ensure community transmission of Covid-19 is broken and stopped.
Mr Matava said the outbreak of the corona virus which started in 2019 has now intensified its threat to the global communities including PNG, and ENB is no exception as the current rate of incursion has now indicated that there is a greater degree of cluster and community transmission already as indicated by the increased cases.
“The province was vigilant in managing the two first cases in 2020, however over a period of one year, our complacency has allowed this disease to not only enter the province but also to spread within community clusters and to all sectors in the communities at a faster rate,” he said.
“This situation has overwhelmingly put our provincial health system in a very stressful situation where health workers are immediate victims and health institutions are now avenues for further spread,” Mr Matava said.
He said the virus has spread across the province making contact tracing difficult, costly and time consuming resulting in untimely response in some instances.
“In the last six days, 30 percent of persons tested have returned Covid-19 positive while in the past 24 hours, 50 percent have returned positive. This can be much higher if we do not use asymptomatic contacts meaning, even before testing anyone with symptoms should be considered to have Covid-19 and should stay home until cleared.”
Mr Matava said while the current upsurge has directly resulted in an overwhelming health system, there is already evidence of social and community disorders resulting from lack of business growth and increased unemployment.
“Our local economy has been severely affected as businesses are forced to re-organise their business operations.”
In complementing the efforts of the national government through 12 new measures, the ENB Provincial Advisory and Provincial Control Center Committees have resolved to:
- Lockdown provincial borders as of Monday April 5 until May 4. Entry points into ENB through the New Britain Highway will be controlled.
- A provincial call out to all public servants, district administrators and LLG Managers to be involved in awareness, enforcement of compliance with containment strategies and protocols to stop the spread.
- Tokua airport and Rabaul wharf to implement the New Normal Control Measures as required by the Pandemic Act.
- Travellers using small craft to use entry points-Tokunar and basis next to Kabaira (from WNB) and JJ Seeto beach front in Kokopo (from NIP).
Mr Matava said a police unit has been called out to patrol the New Britain highway during the lockdown period, wearing masks is mandatory. Eight checkpoints have been established and to be manned by public servants.
ENB has a total 294 cases.