CHAIRMAN of the Emergency Operation Centre Malaita, Dr Rex Maukera said cases of COVID-19 in east Areare are stable despite the presence of the virus in certain communities within the constituency.
In an interview this week, Dr Maukera said a health team is on the ground and they will continue to liaise with the EOC at Kilu’ufi hospital in Auki on the situation there.
Maukera said since this week no cases of severity were reported on cases in the constituency, thus cases are mild and they continue to be monitored, although it is challenging.
He said the team continues to provide support to the communities, especially on covid-19 safety measures required to be taken to stop the further spread of the virus to other communities.
Maukera also uttered similar statement for other parts of the province that were affected by the virus as they continue to liaise and monitor their situations as well.
He said that generally there are stable condition for cases across the province, although a very few cases are reported with severe status so far.
Dr Maukera also said recovery of positive cases continues to be reported for the province despite a surge of cases reported for Malaita province.
He said the provincial health team continues to support and liaise with communities in the province and ask everyone’s support, especially to adhere to covid-19 measures during this situation.
MALAITA Provincial Emergency Operation Centre for covid-19 at Kilu’ufi hospital has reported that low swabs were taken for Auki township this week.
Chairman of EOC Malaita, Dr Rex Maukera made the statement when asked about the declining number of covid-19 cases reported earlier this week for Auki compared to last week.
He said the decline doesn’t mean there is a curtail on the transmission in Auki, but due to the low number of swabs taken in Auki earlier this week.
Maukera said the rationale for that was covid-19 testing carried out at Kilu’ufi hospital is voluntarily, and it is an individual’s choice to do their test although it is encouraged.
He said also there is a decline on operation for Auki due to human resource, since most of their staff were deployed to East Are Are, Small Malaita and other parts of the province that reported cases.
He also said there are a smaller number of staffs at the hospital and clinics in the province, and they were tasked to man for general illnesses.
According to Maukera, although they are faced with challenges they are planning and doing the best they can to assist people during this situation.
Maukera encouraged people in the province, especially in Auki to voluntarily get their test to know of their status since the virus is prevalent in Auki and other parts of the province.
He said testing is important to track the virus and helps to reduce the current spread of the virus in the province.
THE Provincial Secretary of Isabel Province John Lokumana says people should rely on their food gardens while awaiting the provincial livelihood team to be activated.
Responding to concerns raised by some communities within Isabel Province, PS Lokumana said due to financial difficulties faced by the province, people should rely on foods from their garden (local food).
“Our livelihood team is yet to be activated but even then, we have no financial support as yet to activate and facilitate the livelihood committee roles and responsibilities”, PS Lokumana said.
He said any lockdown enforced at their community should be lifted to give them access to the sea and even visit their food garden.
“We at Buala still survive with local food provided by the nearby villages and they should also do the same while waiting for rescue which is still to come or may not come at all”, PS Lokumana said.
He also said the medical or Health team cannot attend to swabbing or contact tracing due to no fuel.
National Response Department (NRD) officers of the Royal Solomon Island Police Force (RSIPF) currently undertaking armed offender training in Australia will be participating in practical scenarios and assessments.
The practical scenarios and assessments include:
· Members responding to a critical incident and are required to assess the situation and provide a situation report detailing their observations, actions taken, proposed actions and what additional support is required;
· Method of movement, use of cover and concealment and the introduction of stimulus response;
· Rehearsing various tactics for use in a variety of circumstances and environments; and
· Introduced in dealing with Improvised Explosive Devices.
The Active Armed Offender training concluded on Friday 4 February 2022, and brought together all elements introduced during the week.
Members were required to demonstrate search and contact drills through response to stimulus, incident management and application of medical assistance.
Officer in Charge of the Operational Safety Team, Gary Hahn, who is overseeing the delivery of the training said he is impressed with the skills the RSIPF members have commenced the course with, and the level of commitment being shown by the contingent and the quality of the new skills being acquired by RSIPF officers.
NRD Deputy Director, Superintendent Lionel Kapisa commended the team on what was done very well and the acquiring many new skills.
The team’s new abilities to deal with critical incidents that may arise, which further develop the capabilities in response management.
RSIPF armourer, Constable Chivas Babasia, said the new drills acquired would provide further security for the RSIPF.
Chivas noted that the training further strengthened the bond between team members and ensured the team worked well together to deal with all aspects required in a critical incident response.
WESTERN Provincial Government and the Western Provincial Disaster Operation Committee are trying to strike a deal with the owner of Nusatupe Quarantine facility.
The negotiation came as a previous deal was abandoned due to disagreement between the parties after renovation was done to the building.
Chairperson of WPDOC said Western Province has spent money and efforts to upgrade Nusatupe Quarantine site however, the situation that follows led to deregistration of the site due to fail agreements.
“Upgrading of Nusatupe Quarantine facility was done in good faith between the owner, National Disaster Management office and Western Province but after completing the renovation the lease was very expensive and that forced the Western provincial government to abandon the site based on the fact that the lease was very expensive.
“Province also cancel the gazette that certified Nusatupe as a quarantine facility as one of the sites to quarantine people,” he explained.
Wickham said the increasing need for quarantine facilities due to the increase number of positive cases in Western Province has forced WPDOC and the province to renegotiate with the owner of the Nusatupe facility.
He said there is green light to use the Nusatupe Quarantine Facility anytime from now.
“We managed to review the Nusatupe quarantine site with the hope there will be positive respond coming from the government,” Wickham said.
THE government is ensuring public requests to repatriate dead bodies to the provinces are appropriately handled, Minister of Health and Medical Services, Dr Culwick Togamana explained in his daily COVID19 updates.
Minister Togamana was responding to requests received from relatives of the deceased to transfer dead bodies to their final resting places outside of the Honiara Emergency zone.
Sending his heartfelt condolences to the families who have lost their loved ones in our fight against COVID, the Minister states a deceased person deserves timely, dignified, and culturally-appropriate burial.
“Those handling bodies of the deceased should be aware that there is likely to be a continuing risk of infection from body fluids and tissues where COVID-19 infection is suspected or confirmed,” Minister Togamana cautions.
“Although the risk of infectious transmission is lower than for living patients, action should be taken to mitigate that risk,” he added.
“The virus can also be passed from a dead body infected by the virus to a living person.
“We still don’t know exactly how long the virus can live in the body even after a person has died, but it could be several days.
“If somebody were to go and touch, hug or kiss a dead corpse of someone who died of the coronavirus, then yes, there is a chance they might catch the virus from contact,” he states.
The health minister said it is important that certain safeguards are put in place to prevent the virus from going to COVID free areas in the provinces.
“It means not allowing any person to accompany the dead body from Honiara to other provinces and also making sure that not more than 10 people collect to undertake the burial,” he stressed.
The Ministry of Health and Medical services says it will be issuing further instructions to educate our people for a COVID-19 safe burial.
MALAITA province is in dire need for support as the virus continues to take its toll in the province.
Chairman of Malaita Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) for covid-19 at Kilu’ufi, Dr Rex Maukera mentioned this to Island Sun yesterday.
He said since the outbreak they continue to receive support from Honiara, but they continue to need more support to deal with the current situation.
“So far we continue to receive support on different areas to the outbreak in the province and just recently we received PPEs and 10 oxygen equipment from Honiara.
“The PPEs have been put in use and soon they are expected to run out and we need more support of the needed equipment.
“And for the 10 oxygen, we will distribute them amongst other health centres in the province where they already have the virus,” Maukera said.
He said Atoifi hospital has already been delivered with an oxygen while Nafinua, Malu’u and Afio are yet to receive oxygen each to support patients at the centre.
Maukera said that six oxygen will be put for use at the Kilu’ufi hospital in Auki.
He said the outbreak has put the provincial health in a considerable situation where support is much needed to deal with the current spread of the virus.
Maukera said the provincial health will continue to provide support to people during the situation and asked everyone for cooperation to try and curb the spread of the virus.
He appealed to people in the province to continue to adhere to covid-19 measures which are super important when faced with the current situation.
Maukera called on everyone in the province to continue to practice hand washing with soap and the use of sanitizer, wear face masks, avoid any form of gathering, restrict public movement or movement between communities and other advisable measures.
EIGHT deaths in the East Are Are constituency recently reported as being related to covid-19 are yet to be confirmed.
Chairman of the Malaita Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) for covid-19 at Kilu’ufi, Dr Rex Maukera told this paper investigation is pending on the status of the deaths.
He said the fact that the deaths occurred within the past two weeks and are purported to be covid-19 as the virus is believed to be in the area, yet they are yet to prove it.
Maukera said investigation is being conducted on the matter and a team is on the ground in East Are Are, where findings will be released soon.
On that note, he said another death recently reported on West Kwaio was related to covid-19.
Maukera said the deceased was a registered nurse who had been employed by communities in West Kwaio and worked at a clinic in the area prior to his death.
He said the deceased was fully vaccinated and had underlying medication conditions before his passing-on.
Maukera said so far Malaita province has three confirmed covid-19 related deaths, and as of yesterday one case is on oxygen at the Kilu’ufi hospital and a total of 345 cases for the province.
Dormitories of King George VI national secondary school will be used as accommodation for frontline workers.
In a media statement yesterday, the national disaster council said:
King George Sixth National Secondary School dormitories were jointly assessed and approved by the National Disaster Operations Committees (N-DOC) for Sector Response for Education, Health and Infrastructure to accommodate frontline teams engage in the COVID-19 response operations.
Frontline teams started occupying the dormitories over the weekend. Initially, the designated dorms with bed capacity of 300 were renovated and repurposed to accommodate incoming passengers in April 2020.
The state owned school was included into the N-DOC for Camp Management Sector (CMSC) managed accommodations.
Currently, CMSC is supporting SIG frontline agencies with accommodation support for their deployed response teams.
CMSC said due to the large number of occupants in the Government-operated Quarantine Stations, they have to find more spaces liveable for frontliners to isolate while engaging in the response operations.
“The workers isolate in the dormitories for duration of their rotational shifts. They will leave the accommodation to reunite with their families once they meet COVID-19 testing protocols.
“Bedding and dignity kits were supplied to occupants upon registration and served daily food,” the statement said.
Meanwhile schools throughout the country remain closed.
The Biosecurity department together with the Biosecurity Emergency Coordination Centre (BECC) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock in its continued efforts to contain and manage the spread of the Coconut Rhinoceros Beetle (CRB) in the country has recently conducted awareness and clean-up/sanitation programme on the islands of Bellona and Rennell Islands, Renbel Province.
The programme was successfully conducted with funding support from the second batch of funding by the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade through the Ministry of Agriculture & Livestock – Biosecurity Department.
While in the provincial headquarter, Tingoa; the team made a courtesy visit to the provincial Premier Willy Tuhagenga and met with his executive.
At the meeting the team briefly updated the provincial executive on the ongoing work to contain and managed further spread of CRB in other parts of the country including Renbel Province.
The team also informed the premier and his executive of the activities that has been conducted while they are in the province.
The Biosecurity officers that led the teams to Bellona and Rennell also do direct recruitment of casual workers.
In Bellona casual workers has been recruited from ward 7 to ward 10 covering the whole island, while on Rennell Island, recruitment has been done only in wards 4 & 5.
The casuals were unemployed youths and men are from the two islands.
Community consultation, Awareness and interviews were conducted in both islands, people were well aware of the Coconut Rhinoceros Beetle which has now become a great threat to their community livelihood and economy.
Posters, brochures and merchandises has been distributed to the casuals and the communities.
The biosecurity team therefore encouraged Rennell and Bellona agriculture extension officers to continue working closely with the plantation owners and good people of Rennell & Bellona islands to closely monitor the coconut plantations and dead stock piles to avoid any further breeding of the CRB on the stock piles.
They advised that the chopped coconut trunks when dried be burnt as soon as possible.
Plantation owners must take the lead in this fight, regularly monitor the coconut palms for infected trees, cut down as soon as identified, to avoid further breeding and spread of the deadly beetle.
Clean-up and/sanitation work will continue again on other provincial sites according to the BECC proposed work plans for this year 2022.
The coconut rhinoceros beetle (CRB), Oryctes rhinoceros, was discovered in Honiara in January 2015.
The ministry (MAL) through its Biosecurity department has carried out active campaigns to eradicate and contain it within outbreak area but was not able to do so.
To date it is now confirmed that the CRB has spread to some parts of the provinces except for Choiseul province and the worst infected provinces are Malaita, Guadalcanal, Makira (mostly Ulawa), Central Province especially Russell Islands and Ngella and Rennell and Bellona and Malaita Outer Islands (MOI).
Coconut industry and other palms are vulnerable to the invasive pest attack.
