Katario villagers move inland to prepare for any Covid-19 transmission
BY BARNABAS MANEBONA
VILLAGERS at Katario Ward, Northeast Choiseul are currently building homes further inland from their seaside villages in preparation if there’s a Coronavirus (Covid-19) community transmission in the area.
At the moment , the Katario Ward is still under a localised lockdown period and according to sentiments shared, they are not giving up in this fight to address the Covid-19 outbreak situation in the country and will do whatever it takes to protect their people.
Member of Provincial Assembly (MPA) for Katario Ward 13 Hon Ronald Zakele explained that this is why villagers are now moving further inland in preparation to isolate families if there is any positive Covid-19 case in the community.
“Because of the understanding too that Covid-19 can only be transmitted from human interaction and movement and not airborne, is why people chose to carry out precautions this way. This is why people are starting to move away from the seaside areas,” said Zakele.
“If one reaches our shores today, they will witness that usual activities of gathering together such as for sports have been cancelled as people are busy making new gardens and homes further inland in the jungle.
“Activities such as Church service now only take place once on Sundays as the practice of two times for services on Sundays has been cancelled.”
On the other hand, it is understood that ‘assistance’ is one of the great challenges Katario Ward face, as they prepare for the virus situation.
Mr Zakele despite making it known that their community has been practising ‘lockdown’ for more than a month now and that they have other village isolation centres being earlier prepared if the virus happens to reach them, again makes a call that they still need assistance.
“We still need assistance such as kitchen utensils, sanitisers and masks for a start to help with our isolation centres prepared. This is because, during isolation, there will be no one going near anyone being tested positive with Covid-19.
“So all villages at Katario Ward are prepared with isolation centres but we need more assistance and guidance from the government and responsible authorities as to how we will receive more assistance,” said Zakele.
Meanwhile, the total Covid-19 positive cases for Solomon Islands currently stands at ‘8,491’, new cases for the past 24 hours is at ‘362’, related death at ‘118’, critical condition ‘3 (three)’ and recovered is ‘1,860’.
