PORT MORESBY, Papua New
Guinea
Papua New Guinea authorities have approved a mass burial to take pressure off Port Moresby’s hospital morgue where bodies are stacked on top of each other as Covid-19 cases surge.
The burial of more than
200 bodies comes as health teams around the country report being attacked as
they took part in vaccination programs.
National Pandemic
Response Controller David Manning has authorised the burial of 200 bodies out
of more than 300 at the morgue which was built to cater for only 60, The
National newspaper reports.
National Capital
District Governor Powes Parkop said refrigerated containers had been installed
to store more bodies and a mass burial was planned for this week.
The PNG capital is
bracing for a possible lockdown this week to try to reduce coronavirus cases
and deaths in a city where 99% of Covid cases admitted to the general hospital
are unvaccinated.
National health board
deputy chair Mathias Sapuri said a two-week lockdown across PNG was the only
way to control the Covid-19 surge.
“The virus stops moving
when people stop moving,” he said.
Governor Parkop earlier
this month said he would oppose any further lockdowns in Port Moresby because
of the costs of previous ones but the latest surge in cases appears to have
changed his mind.
“If the doctors tell me
that we have to lock down because they cannot cope any more, then I will follow
their advice,” he told The National.
Other regions in PNG
have already imposed lockdowns and curfews in a bid to curb the spread of
coronavirus.
PNG has officially
confirmed 26,731 coronavirus cases and 329 deaths but it is believed many more
cases and deaths are going unreported in the nation of nine million where
vaccination hesitancy is reported to be high.
Vaccine hesitancy has
been a major issue and cause for concern in PNG, where less than 1% of the
population has been fully vaccinated.
Last week, in the
second largest city, Lae, community health workers were harassed and threatened
at the centre of town during a mobile awareness and vaccination drive in the
city centre.
The incident on 18
October was caught on camera, showing bystanders throwing rocks and shouting at
health workers.
“The situation was so
tense. The public started throwing stones and running towards the vaccination
team with sticks, iron rods, and stones,” said Emmanuel Saem Jr who witnessed
the scene.
“The crowd shouted at
the health care workers, saying: ‘Karim 666 chip goh!’ (Take
the 666 chip away) or ‘Karim microchip goh!’ (Take the
microchip away).”
No injuries were
reported from the incident and police were called in to disperse the tense
crowd, but witnesses say that people who wanted the vaccine were intimidated by
some of the mob.
After the incident, the
mobile vaccination awareness drive was abandoned. Vaccinations are now only
offered at the country’s second largest referral hospital, Angau General
Hospital, and at smaller suburban clinics.
The Morobe Provincial Health
Authority did not respond to request for comment, however health workers in the
province stated that people don’t seem to take the virus seriously.
“People are not
observing the new normal. People are just too complacent or just don’t believe
Covid-19 is real,” said Dr Alex Peawi, head of Angau Hospital’s Emergency
Hospital.
On Friday, a health
team reportedly administering childhood vaccinations for polio in Lae were
attacked by someone who believed they were giving out Covid-19 vaccinations,
according to the Post Courier.
Health experts in
Morobe fear that the number of Covid-19 cases will continue to rise because of
the province’s proximity to the Eastern Highlands Province, currently a Covid
hotspot.
Eastern Highlands,
Western Highlands and Enga are experiencing a surge in the number of Delta
variant cases. Hospitals in all three provinces are experiencing a shortage of
supplies and manpower and are scaling down services to deal with the outbreak.
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