BY MAVIS N PODOKOLO
The covid-19 delta variant has been found to be more contagious than the chicken pox, another viral disease which is widely known as highly infectious.
SECRETARY to the Prime Minister Dr Jimmie Rodgers said this information is confirmed by the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) a national public health agency of the United States.
“Based on new information the delta variant had been confirmed by CDC and stressed it is as infectious as or more infectious than chicken pox
“For those of you that have chicken pox before you know the way which chickenpox spreads that is how this new variant is spreading,” Rodgers said.
“This virus is more deadly increasing number of people dying from this variant comparing to the number of people died from the previous variant.
“This variant started with the children and no one is exempted from this variant.
“The common thing I want to mention here is all those that have died atleast in Fiji have not been vaccinated. And this is a really important issue for us to take note of,” Rodgers said.
He stressed many countries have stepped up their vaccination coverage seeing that is the only way to combat it.
“If we happen to introduce the delta variant, then we must be prepared to eliminate it in quarantine stations and that has been a policy that worked for us and a policy that we are fine tuning, to make sure we can protect the country and the people from this virus,” Rodgers said.
He uttered, a lot of people in the Solomon Islands still think that COVID-19 can’t hurt them.
“Let me say, there are families torn apart by this disease.
“I just want to make sure all Solomon Islanders to know that this disease is not to be played around with,” Rodgers said.
He said having mandatory vaccination in Solomon Islands is to ensure the population is fully vaccinated and if the virus happens to come in it will not have a disastrous effect in the country and the people.
