The National Control Centre set up to oversee Papua New Guinea's pandemic response is to be disbanded by year's end.
Papua New Guinea's Prime Minister James Marape addresses media after being the first in his country to receive the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine. Port Moresby, 30 March, 2021. Photo: PNG PM Media
Prime Minister James Marape says his government is working towards entrenching the pandemic response and recovery into the country's health care system.
He says this can help the Health Department respond better to future pandemic and endemic crises.
Mr Marape says the Control Centre, which has been led by police commissioner David Manning, must acquit for all the money spent on operations this year.
The Centre was given the directive to scale down operations progressively.
Health authorities recently also began scaling down testing for Covid-19, of which 17,637 cases and almost 200 deaths have been confirmed in the country.
Instead the focus of the pandemic response has shifted to vaccination, although the rollout has struggled with vaccine hesitancy among the public.
PM's blunt vaccination message
The Prime Minister said vaccination will remain voluntary, but that "Papua New Guineans must start seriously understanding that they will die faster if they do not get vaccinated".
"You cannot force people to get vaccinated. They choose not to be vaccinated, they face the consequences.
"Let's build more bed spaces, let's build more morgue spaces. Two things," Marape said in a statement.
"You do not want to be vaccinated, you run the risk of dying."
To date, 74,771 people in PNG have had at least a first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine. That is less than one percent of the population