Malaitans urged to vaccinate as cases continue to increase
BY SAMIE WAIKORI
Auki
NON-VACINATED patients continued to top the list of covid-19 cases for Malaita province.
Chairman of Malaita Emergency Operation Centre (EOC), Dr Rex Maukera revealed this to the Island Sun.
He said since Auki town registered its first case several weeks ago, cases continued to increase and they also continue to receive high proportion of non-vaccinated patients.
Maukera said there were cases of those who complete their vaccine and those who only take their first doze, but their proportion is less to the non-vaccinated.
He said they continue to experience that and it’s an issue for the province since a good number of people refused to take or complete their dozes.
Maukera said the trend of infection has gone up in the province and this needs collective efforts by utilizing required resources at our disposal.
He said the global recommended effort is vaccination so he urged the people of Malaita to get vaccinated.
Maukera said vaccination is activated and provided in clinics across the province where people can access them.
He also said that amidst the situation people must seriously uphold and practice covid-19 measures for the good of everyone and to try to reduce the transmission in the province.
Meanwhile, as of Monday this week, Malaita has reported covid-19 cases in all the five regions of the province.
Earlier, cases were only reported in Luaniua and Pelau of MOI region and Auki town of Central region.
Now cases were recorded in the remaining three regions (eastern, southern and northern) of the province.
Maukera said the 250 cases recorded in the province are from all the four regions.
He said on Monday the province reported 63 new cases, raising the tally to 250, with the potential to continue increasing.
Maukera said breakdown of 63 cases according to official cases announced for Malaita on Monday are as follows:
Nafinua – 24 cases for eastern region
Atoifi – 10 cases for eastern region
Afio – 20 cases for southern region
Faalau – 3 cases for northern region that was announced in the previous data
Auki town – nine cases for central region
Baunani – one pending case for west Kwaio under central region
Maukera said Auki town has so far been the focus for covid-19 cases, before recent reports of transmission in other parts of the province.
He stressed that the provincial health has inadequate resources to deal with the transmission and communities are urged to adhere to covid-19 measures.
“This is very serious and I must reiterate my call to people in the province to continue to:
- Refrain from social gathering
- Regular handing washing with soaps and use of sanitizer
- Wear face mask
- Social distancing
- Limit movement within communities, unless need to be
- Report to nearest clinics if feel with symptoms of the virus
“Covid-19 cases for the province continue to increase on a daily basis and it needs careful adherent to the measures to try and reduce or halt the trend.
“I call on people in the province to work together with front liners and listen out for information on the current situation.”
