Nine (9) new cases of COVID-19 cases where confirmed for the Milne Bay Province in the last week. Milne Bay has only lab in the province for COVID-19 testing located at the Alotau Provincial Hospital that caters for the mainland and island districts in the province.
“Only people that show COVID-19 symptoms are being tested due to the limited supply of testing cartridges given by the National Department of Health.” said Ashan Numa, the Milne Bay Provincial COVID-19 Controller.
“The current active cases are in self isolation with specialized teams that monitor them to ensure they remain in isolation.”
There is an isolated ward allocated for those critical cases however there is no one in the ward at the moment. The Milne Bay Provincial Government has renovated one of its buildings which was meant to be the Women in Business Building and opened at the end of 2019 to be used as the isolation ward for people with COVID-19.
The building can house 50 people and is currently available to be used once the isolation ward at the Alotau Provincial Hospital is filled. The District health authorities have been notified to build semi permanent isolation wards to be used when they have confirmed cases in their districts.
Some districts have already started building their isolation wards. For those that don’t record any COVID-19 cases, the isolation wards can be used for other illnesses such as TB.
Mr Numa said that the Provincial Advisory Committee will meet today to come up with COVID-19 safety measures for the province. They will have to incorporate the current national measures into the provincial measures. New measures will be released on Tuesday, 16th March, 2021.
He added that community transmission is happening in Alotau town and all residents must adhere to the prescribed hygiene protocols that in place.