PM APPEALS FOR CALM
PRIME Minister Manasseh Sogavare has encouraged citizens in the country to remain calm.
The Prime Minister made the call following concerns over the past 24 hours that there could be community transmission of COVID-19 in the country.
Prime Minister Sogavare informed the public especially in Malaita and in Honiara that based on their initial assessments; the Ministry of Health believed that the risk of COVID-19 community transmission is low at this stage.
“Let us remain calm and allow our health professionals to complete their analysis,” he said.
Prime Minister Sogavare said the results of the swabs taken at the student’s village in Malaita, will give a better indication of the level of risk of community transmission.
“In this regard, I am happy to inform the public that our NHEOC team has already established an up-to-date mapping of the student’s travel and lodging pattern over the past two weeks that will assist them in the event a broader contact tracing exercise is required,” he said.
The Prime Minister said a field team had already completed contact tracing in the village in Malaita and swabs were collected from more than 30 individuals for analysis at the Molecular lab in Honiara.
“The student has been readmitted to the Field hospital the same day and has tested NEGATIVE on both the GeneXpert and qPCR machines,” he said.
Prime Minister Sogavare said after results of the contact tracing are released, the Government would be in a much better position to provide further focussed advice.
The public are also advised not to spread rumours that would cause panic and fear.
Media Release from the Government Communication Unit