The pandemic controller in the autonomous Papua New Guinea region of Bougainville says the lockdown could be extended but there are no such plans at the moment.
Bougainville was put into a two-week lockdown a week ago as Covid-19 cases soared in the province.
The controller, Clement Totavun, said as of Friday they had had an estimated ten deaths in the past month, with more than 170 people infected with the virus in that time.
Photo: 123rf.com
He said the lockdown is being strictly managed with contact tracing and a requirement that anyone entering the main town, Buka, can prove that they are virus free.
"The positivity of those that have been contacted is quite low at the moment but we are monitoring the situation and if the number of cases that are followed up begin to increase again, we will consider extending the lockdown but as it is there is no plan for extending the lockdown," he said.
Totavun said there is a lot of negativity from social media about the virus and the vaccine, and it is having a serious impact there.
He said his communication team is doing what it can to turn around these views.
"Our risk communication team is working around to develop key messages that will be desseminated to our people to give them the correct and factual information about covid and the vaccine that will give us some leverage to what we can do to contain the situation, which is serious, but we are confident we will be able to contain the situation here," the Bougainville pandemic controller said.
Meanwhile a New Zealand team has been deployed to PNG to support the Covid-19 response.
It includes a logistics component comprising two New Zealand Defence Force logisticians and Defence Force environmental health officer who will provide support in Port Moresby.
A clinical team of two doctors and three nurses from Respond Global, two Fire and Emergency New Zealand logisticians and a Foreign Affairs official will be based in Bougainville to support the Bougainville Department of Health.