Papua New Guinea reported two new cases of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the last 24 hours increasing the country’s total cases to 813.

Both cases, a 48 year old female and 33 year old male were reported from Talasea in West New Britain province. Both cases were tested at Hoskins airport.

They did not show symptoms of COVID-19 at the time of testing but swab samples returned positive. The country’s COVID-19 cases now stands at 813 with nine deaths.

A total of 40,068 people have been tested for Coronavirus in PNG. Of the 813 people who contracted COVID-19 774 people have recovered whilst 30 active cases are in isolation.

A total of 251 samples are pending at the laboratories. Sixteen provinces including the Autonomous Region Of Bougainville (AROB) have reported cases.

The distribution of the cases is as follows: Provinces Cases

NCD 362

Western Province 212

West New Britain 142

East New Britain 30

Eastern H/lands 13

New Ireland 15

Western H/lands 10

Central 10

Morobe 6

East Sepik 3

Enga 3

Milne Bay 2

West Sepik 2

Southern H/lands 1

AROB 1

Hela Province 1

TOTAL 813

Globally, the total confirmed cases of COVID-19 has reached 85,929,428 including 735,944 new cases reported in the last 24 hours.

The death toll is 1,876,100; of which 13,968 were reported in the last 24 hours. The Controller of the National Pandemic Response Mr David Manning has called upon citizens to protect themselves from COVID-19 by following COVID-19 protocols of avoiding crowds or wearing face masks and washing hands regularly.