PNG records two more Covid-19 related deaths, vaccines continue to roll into CNMI and delayed repatriation flights maintains pressure on NZ's Pasifika community.
Photo: St John Papua New Guinea
Two more Covid-19 deaths in PNG
Papua New Guinea has recorded two more Covid-19 related deaths in Port Moresby bringing the country's fatal infections to 14.
On Saturday, a 49-year-old man died after being admitted to hospital with a cough and shortness of breath and a 60-year-old man died yesterday after five days in intensive care.
Total known cases climbed yesterday by 49 including a spike of 31 in Bougainville, bringing numbers for PNG to 1365.
On Sunday 21 new cases were recorded and 20 on Saturday.
Covid vaccine continues to roll into the CNMI
The Northern Marianas has ordered 400 doses of the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine, which was recently approved for emergency use by the US . Food and Drug Administration.
The CNMI is also set to receive 9,360 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech and 4,600 doses of the Moderna vaccine this week.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is a one-dose vaccine that is said to protect against moderate to severe Covid-19 cases two weeks after people get vaccinated.
The expected fresh batch of vaccines represent a 20 percent increase over the February allocation of the Pfizer vaccine, and a 43 percent increase in the month's allocation of the Moderna vaccine.
With these additions, the CNMI has now been allocated nearly 31,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine and 12,800 doses of the Moderna vaccine.
As far as the inoculation campaign is concerned, 10,375 people on Saipan, Tinian, and Rota have already received their first vaccine doses, while 7,441 have completed the two-dose series.
Delay of repatriation flights push burden of care on Pasifika
The Chief Executive of the Pasifika Medical Association says the delay of repatriation flights maintains pressure on New Zealand's Pasifika community.
The Cook Islands recently announced that their scheduled flight this week has been cancelled due to the recent community outbreak in New Zealand.
Debbie Sorensen said it was the right decision to cancel and delay flights to the Pacific to avoid having Covid-19 enter their borders.
"What this means is that we have a number of families who are now delayed another week, perhaps two weeks to get back home to their home country, the burden of that care is being forced back into our community again."
Tonga puts a halt on repatriation flight from New Zealand.
A repatriation flight from Auckland to Tonga planned for Wednesday 3rd of March has been postponed following Auckland's move to alert level three lockdown.
Tonga's Ministry of Information and Communications announced the change yesterday afternoon.
The decision was made at a meeting of the National Emergency Mangagement Committee and the Covid-19 Taskforce.
Meanwhile, two other repatriation flights - from Australia and Fiji - are still scheduled for tomorrow, with all passengers to enter a managed quarantine facility for 21-days.