Two new COVID-19 positive cases have been reported in the country in the last 24 hours.

A 42 year old male was reported positive in New Ireland province whilst a 24 year old male was reported positive in East New Britain.

The 42 year old who lives in Namatanai district in New Ireland province is a mine worker who was tested at the Lihir Medical Centre. He was experiencing fever, cough, headache and muscle ache at the time of testing.

In East New Britain, the 24 year old male was tested at Nonga. He did not show symptoms of COVID-19 at the time of testing but swab samples have returned positive.

The 24 year old travelled from West New Britain on the 22nd December 2020.

The country’s Covid 19 cases now stands at 799 and 9 deaths.

A total of 39,761 people have been tested for Coronavirus. 755 people have recovered whilst 281 samples are pending at the laboratories. Thirty-five active cases are in isolation.

Sixteen provinces including the Autonomous Region of Bougainville have reported cases.

The distribution of the cases is as follows:

Provinces                      Cases

NCD                                361

Western Province        212

West New Britain         140

East New Britain           21

Eastern H/lands             13

New Ireland                   13

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                           799

Globally, the total confirmed cases of COVID-19 has reached 82,579,768, including 640,505 new cases reported in the last 24 hours. The death toll is 1,818,849; of which 11,237 were reported in the last 24 hours.