The Daru hospital in the Western Province has closed as of Tuesday this week following an influx of COVID-19 patients into the hospital.
Deputy Controller Dr Daoni Esorom said the hospital is currently treating 80 COVID-19 patients and they don’t have any more beds to cater for patients.
Meanwhile a senior doctor of the hospital is very sick with symptoms of Delta Variant.
“The doctor that is looking after the emergency department and the clinical services of the hospital is currently in a critical condition.”
“We are planning to medivac her to Port Moresby and we are pretty sure that it is the Delta Variant with symptoms quite peculiar and specific to the Delta Variant. ”
Dr Daoni said it is likely that Western Province will see more of such cases in the coming days.
“We will see more of this in Western province while we are already seeing it us spreading in West Sepik.”
” If the country is not careful, we night have a severe surge and a massive outbreak that can easily get out of control and we will have a lot of people dying.” said Dr Daoni.
He called on the people in high risk provinces to strictly adhere to the new normal and volunteer to be vaccinated to protect themselves, their families and communities from the deadly strain of the virus.