In light of the recent surge IN Delta Variant cases, 53 students of Dirima Primary School in Gumine of Simbu Province have all been masked up for the Grade Eight National Examinations which started off on Monday this week.
The white masks were supplied to the students and the invigilators by Dirima Catholic Parish Priest, Fr Peter Kim (SVD) on Sunday after blessing the grade eight examination papers.
Fr Peter Kim received close to 10,000 authentically designed and made face masks from his friends in South Korea where he is originally from.
Fr Kim said he distributed the masks to his parishioners and the surrounding communities in Dirima and also disbursed them to others from Kundiawa Catholic Diocese and the SVD confrences.
He said he received the masks mid this year from his friends who paid all costs involved.
He also said with support from his parish council, fabric material were bought and with the help of volunteers close to 1,000 face masks were locally sewn and distributed to the Catholic communities which included three agency schools in the parish.
When others chose to leave, Fr Kim remained steadfast in his awareness and education approaches in preventing the spread of Covid-19 in Dirima and the surrounding communities.
He said the new normal strategies have been applied in his Church on Sundays and he is limiting Church programs and activities as a part of the new normal.
Officer-in-Charge of Gumine Health Centre, George Umba said his health facility, which is two kilometres away from Dirima, has recorded 17 cases so far in the last two weeks of which three patients have died.
Mr Umba said there is community transmissions happening in Gumine currently and he is expecting to see more patients coming in to the health centre.
Meanwhile, the district Covid-19 mobile team that has conducted vaccinations has jabbed 200 people in Dirima with the Johnson & Johnson (JJ) vaccinations a week ago.
Team leader Sr Serah Kaile said in Dirima 200 people have been vaccinated and currently the team is awaiting more vaccines to come in before they move into other communities in Gumine.