PNG Scales down COVID-19 Testing
The Papua New Guinea National Control Center has decided to scale down the testing for COVID-19 and will focus on rolling out the vaccination program.
Police Commissioner and Controller of the National Pandemic Response David Manning says the arrival of the vaccines (AstraZeneca, Sinopharm, and soon the Johnson &Johnson vaccines) have allowed the pandemic response team to make that transition to not only focus on the vaccination program but expedite the PNG Government strategy to implement and return to the New Normal or “Niupela Pasin”.
Mr Manning said it is a foregone conclusion that COVID-19 is already in the country, thus it is better to continue to implement containment strategies and bolster efforts with the available vaccines.
Mr Manning says in as far as testing is concerned testing will continue but at the health facility setting.
He said in the near future a similar arrangement such as the Voluntary Counseling and Testing set up will be introduced to selected health facilities to test for COVID-19 and is part of the “Niupela Pasin”.
Manning says a very real concern for us at this point is the new variants of COVID-19 that exist in our region.
These variants are highly contagious and have been proven to be deadly.
Controller Manning further said that we cannot profess to be acting in the best interest of our peoples and country by ignoring this threat and simply not doing anything within reason to avoid these deadly variants coming into our country.
NBC News / ONE PNG
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