Medical equipment for covid-19 arrive in the country
By EDDIE OSIFELO
SOLOMON Islands Government yesterday took delivery of lab equipment and testing kits purchased from the Chinese Company BGI（Beijing Genomic Institution), using part of China’s $2.5 million (300,000USD) donation.
This is part of the Government’s preparation plan for any arrival of the coronavirus (covid-19) in the country.
Minister of Provincial Government and Institutional Strengthening, Rollence Seloso, Minister of Mines, Energy and Rural Electrification, Bradley Tovosia, Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff, Robson Djokovic, staffs of Office of Prime Minister were at the Honiara International airport to receive the medical equipment brought over by Solomon Airlines from Brisbane yesterday.
The arrival of the cargoes happened after Chinese Embassy in Solomon Islands together with Ministry of Foreign Affairs and External Trade held a handover ceremony at the Office of the Prime Minister last week.
Minister Jeremiah Manele received the handover certificate from Counselor Yao Ming, Deputy Head of Mission of the Chinese Embassy regarding the $2.5 million (300,000 USD) donated funds from the Chinese Government for Solomon Islands to fight against the entry and spread of covid-19.
A staff of Chinese Embassy said together with the Lab equipment and testing kits, some PPE donations from China also arrived on the same flight.
“Because of the lockdown/travel ban/flight cancel in many countries, the transportation of the above-mentioned cargoes faced lots of difficulties.
“The Embassy, OPMC, BGI and relevant agencies work together, try best to facilitate a flight route, from Hongkong, via Manila, Sydney and Brisbane to transport the goods to Honiara,” staff said.
The Embassy already facilitated a video conference between BGI and OPMC, Ministry of Health and Medical Service and National Referral Hospital last month, before the purchase.
They talked about the technical issues in building the COVID-19 testing centre in NRH.
BGI is continuing to provide assistance to the Solomon Islands side to facilitate the lab for testing COVID-19.
The testing centre will be set up soon with the arrived lab equipment and testing kits.
In addition, some other donated medical supplies (PPE） arrived last weekend by two cargo ships will be donated to MHMS, Guadalcanal Provincial Government, Honiara City Council, etc. late this week.
The PPE donations are from Guangdong Provincial Government（sister province of Guadalcanal, China Harbour Engineering Company, Jia Shu Rong He International Trade Company and Solomon Chinese Association.
Founded in 1999, BGI is one of the world’s leading life science and genomics organizations.
BGI’s mission is to use genomics to benefit mankind and to be a leader in the era of life sciences.
With businesses in more than 100 countries and regions around the world, BGI has established cooperation and partnerships with thousands of different organizations across multi-disciplinary research areas including medical health, resource conservation and judicial services.
At the same time, BGI provides equipment, technical support and solutions for the needs of national economies and people’s livelihoods, such as precision medicine and precision health.
