BY JOHN HOUANIHAU
DR NEMIA Baenivalu of the Ministry of Health and Medical Services said there has been signs of a decrease in covid-19 cases in Honiara recently.
“My minister also highlighted throughout the week that we have seen a declining number of cases, but the issue now is its expansion into the rural communities,’’ said Baenivalu.
He said that to date (Saturday 5) the total positive cases nationwide is approaching 8000, now standing at 7940 cases with 115 covid related deaths.
“In the past 48 hours (Thursday, Friday, Saturday) we recorded 346 cases, 300 new cases recorded in the past two days, 46 are old cases,’’ said Dr. Baenivalu.
Of the 300 new cases, Honiara accounts for 52, Guadalcanal province 6, Malaita 12, Isabel 44, Western Province 131, Choiseul 4, and Makira with 51 new cases.
He said currently, medical teams are on the ground in Malaita, Sege, Marovo, and Central Islands province as the ministry is working on deploying additional assistance.
” While they are there, they would also look at what are the gaps and how to address them with provincial authorities.
“We are trying to send Personal Protective Equipments-masks, gloves, etc. to protect Health team during their work, supplying covid19 vaccines and medicines to assist and manage Covid patients, oxygen concentrators and technical people to help provincial health teams.
On February 20, the Special Secretary to the Prime Minister’s office also the Vice Chair of the COVID-19 oversight committee Dr. Jimmy Rogers also highlighted the decline.
Speaking during the SIBC radio talkback show on Sunday February 20, Dr. Rogers said the community outbreak on January 17 was very high.
“The trend we saw in the first two weeks in Honiara was very high since the first case was registered on the January 17.
“Now in the last couple of weeks (1st & 2nd week of February), the trend is different though the number of testing continued about the same, the level of positives went down relative to what we have seen from the first two weeks.
“It is much better according to our observation- compared to the beginning, hence we are planning of deploying our staff in NRH to go out and assist the provinces as the load at NRH is starting to decrease,’’ he said.
Dr. Rogers said at this point they are consciously confident that the number of cases in Honiara is stabilizing at least at the minimum.
“However we don’t want to lose our safety Covid practices as we can easily have a second wave.
“In medical science, evidence depends on the assessment of trends and we need time for that. Continue to observe the Covid safety measures to ensure we don’t go into the second wave very quickly,” said Dr. Rogers.
