If COVID-19 cases continue to rise, the government is considering a lockdown from the new Isolation Strategy.
People are not listening or complying with the Niupla Pasin policies, according to Rainbo Paita, the Leader of Government Business. As a result, Cabinet has had to take drastic measures to save lives.
“Another main factor is because people aren’t listening, they’re not complying with the new measures and already there is community transmission everywhere,” Paita said. “But the National Executive Council will meet this afternoon (yesterday) and the Health Minister Jelta Wong will update Cabinet on the current statistics, the trend and transmission rate but there has been a lot of concerns raised by ministers in the Cabinet and I can say that the government is considering a lockdown to help curb the surge.”
Paita said that the virus is real and people need to start taking it seriously.
“Numbers are increasing every day, people are dying, and soon the government will have to take drastic measures to safeguard Papua New Guineans lives,” he said. “Doctors and nurses are trying their best but it seems that the general public is not taking it seriously.”
Paita has announced that K2 million has been set aside for masks and sanitisers to all regional health authorities.
“We understand that not everyone can afford to purchase a K2 or K5 mask daily so the government allocated this K2 million to help support PHAs to procure masks and sensitizers for people in their provinces,” he said. “And PHAs should be distributing these masks and hand sanitisers free of charge to the public.”
