WITH current efforts to curb the spread of COVID-19 in the country and prevent possible entry and spread of Omicron and other COVID-19 variants to the communities, 179 people are in quarantine as of 5th April 2022.
In his national COVID-19 update address Tuesday this week, Dr. Togamana said, that 179, 171 are international arrivals from Brisbane, Fiji, and Kiribati flights last month and the first week of April, and the remaining 8 persons in quarantine are from the provinces.
‘17 of those in quarantine have tested positive, 9 international arrivals and 8 from the provinces. These 17 people are being quarantined together with their close contacts for an extended period of quarantine days and for additional testing protocols’
‘The rest are those that are serving the normal 10 days mandatory quarantine period and should undergo COVID-19 tests on day 5 to 7 and day 10 of quarantine and will be discharged once results returned negative’, explained Dr. Togamana.
He further explained that those who tested positive in quarantine will be held for another 24 additional days with three additional tests. ‘First additional test is to be conducted on day 10, second test after another 7 days (day 17) and third test after another 7 days (day 24)’.
With Genome sequencing, the medical lab procedure to identify the type of COVID-19 variant, the Health Minister said that a total of 84 samples have been sent so far to an Australian laboratory for sequencing.
‘37 of the 84 samples were sent last week Friday and we are awaiting results that should be available by next week. For now, all other test results showed that Delta remains the COVID-19 variant in transmission in the country, said Dr. Togamana.
Current quarantining of international arrivals and genome sequencing of COVID-19 positive samples are crucial towards current health efforts to prevent the so-called 2nd wave of COVID-19 infection.
SOURCE: MHMS PRESS
