The Government is deploying additional personnel and resources to the Malaita Outer Islands tomorrow in response to the latest six covid positive cases on the remote island of Pelau.
The team will travel with essential supplies to quantify the magnitude of the community transmission of COVID-19 infection in Pelau and other communities in Ontong Java and to work with the community to bring the situation under control.
The team include staff to undertake further contract tracing and surveillance work, risk communication, clinical management of those that get ill, coordination and planning personnel from NDMO and police officers.
The team is travelling with medical equipment and supplies, additional tents to be set up as quarantine stations, field hospital, and accommodation units for the travelling personnel together with other essential commodities including fuel for normal operations and a helicopter.
The team will depart tomorrow on MV Solomons Prestige II and should arrive in Pelau early on Friday morning.
Health Authorities are yet to determine the variant that infected the Pelau community.
“We are not sure what variant is circulating in Pelau, but whether it is the Delta or the Omicron variant, as you already know from my previous address – both these variants are described as the fittest, the fastest and the deadliest variants of COVD-19,” Prime Minister Sogavare said when announcing the cases today.
According to contact tracing information, the index case that brought the infection to Pelau village is a medical doctor from PNG who hails from Tasman Islands and has traditional ties with the people of Pelau.
The doctor with nine other people including members of his family crossed the border from Tasman to Pelau on 9 January 2021.
-GCU Press