16 February 2022
As of last evening (Tuesday), the cumulative total of cumulative Covid-19 cases in the Solomon Islands was reported as being 4,910.
87 new positive Covid-19 cases were reported during Tuesday
The Minister of Health and Medical Services Dr. Culwick Togamana gave the Covid update during his daily COVID-19 situation on Tuesday night.
He said of the 87 cases 63 were new cases reported within the 24-hour reporting period while 24 cases were from swabs collected earlier in the provinces.
Of the 63 new cases, 38 were in Honiara while 25 were from the provinces...
For the provinces Malaita recorded 23 new cases, Guadalcanal recorded 2 new cases, Choiseul recorded 7 new cases and Isabel recorded 5 new cases.
At the time of his news release, the West was then yet to send in an updated report while Makira had not registered any new cases. Temotu and Rennell Bellona provinces remained free from Covid, the Minister said.
The Health Minister said 10 additional samples were sent to Australia to confirm the variant and reported all 10 samples had traces of the Delta variant. He explained that in the Solomon Islands one could be certain that the variant infecting the population was the Delta variant.
Minister Culwick advised during his national address that vaccinations were continuing at the Lawson Tama stadium and at the Solomon Ports carpark, and he encouraged the public to come forward and get vaccinated.
Today, Wednesday, sevenpeople in Fiji have died from Covid-19 in the past week.
Fiji's government has also confirmed 156 new cases in the same period.
All but four of the latest victims were vaccinated against Covid-19.
The Fiji Health Secretary Dr James Fong said there are 141 patients in isolation.
He said 93 percent of the adult population is fully vaccinated against Covid-19, and more than 42-thousand children aged 12 to 17 are also fully vaccinated.
Fiji has had 63,406 cases since March 2020 with the death toll at 820, it was reported.
During the ongoing Covid tramsmission crisis at home, Solomon Airways has continued its cargo flights delivering food and medical supplies.
From Thursday this the airline has scheduled cargo-only flights from Honiara to Arona, Gizo, Choiseul Bay, Kiraki weekra, Rennell, Bellona and Atoifi.
The airline has advised that any cargo for the mentioned destinations will need to be lodged with the airline’s Cargo Office at Henderson Airport today, Wednesday. Any queries can be referred to the cargo team on +677 36592.
In separate, but very welcome news, the Livelihood Sector Committee (LSC) of the National Disaster Operation Committees (N-DOC) has received with gratitude yet another major delivery of relief food assistance from the Australian Government for its food distribution program to households within the Honiara Emergency Zone.
The delivery included 14,000 bags of rice and 3,126 cartons of Solomon Blue Tuna. The second round of support is in response to the committee’s findings that there were many houses in Honiara that had previous missed out on getting food relief supplies. It has been announced, however, that the second round will be the last one for the Honiara Emergency Zone.
Australia’s first relief assistance, in response to Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare’s called for support as the country continues its fight to manage and control the Covid community transmission, was delivered to the LSC on January 27th which included 22,000 of 20kg bags of rice and 7,000 cartons of tuna.
With the second delivery the total support from Australia to-date towards the Committee’s food distribution program has been 36,000 bags of rice and 10,126 cartons of Tuna.
“Let me thank you on behalf of our people and government for the commitment to support us. Your commitment to ensuring this food relieve is completed is truly appreciated,” PS Frances said as she acknowledged the Australia High Commission during the delivery of food support.
The Chairman of the LSC, Michael Ho’ota has also acknowledged Australian Government for the generous support. Mr. Ho’ota assured the Australian Government and its people that the relief supplies would be distributed to support all household in the Emergency Zone.
“To date, we have delivered to 80 per cent of Honiara households with the initial donations and government purchased goods.
“Food distribution is continuing and it is the government’s commitment that every household within the Honiara Emergency Zone must receive a share from the relief food assistance,” the Livelihood Chair said.
Mr. Ho’ota also acknowledged the assistance provided by donor partners, business houses in Honiara, the Market Vendor Association and individuals who have stepped in with food assistance and logistical support during the difficult times as the country continue its fight against Covid.
Meanwhile, there are two response plans that the Livelihood Sector Committee is undertaking. First is relief response to ships on lockdown, to isolated communities and households (Isolation households) that are in isolation after a member or members of their families have tested positive for Covid-19, and relief response to the general public which will be delivered to households through Wards/Community committees.
Footnote.
The LSC is co-led by the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAL), Ministry of Fisheries and Honiara City Council together with other stakeholders and partners. The Committee is working closely with Honiara City Council on the food delivery mechanism.
In respect of Australian relief support,
Australia has deployed two Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) C-27J Spartan cargo aircraft to the Solomon Islands. This was in response to a request from the Solomon Islands government.
The aircraft will be used to distribute personal protective equipment (PPE) for health workers and emergency food aid to the provinces hardest hit by the Covid outbreak.
The aircraft will also support the delivery of six Australian-supplied ‘bricks’ of medical equipment and consumables to be distributed to provincial hospitals. The deployment will be undertaken in close partnership with the Solomon Islands Government.
The 15 cubic meters “bricks”, currently being assembled in Brisbane, contain oxygen equipment and consumables, medication, and PPE specifically designed to provide care to those unwell with Covid.
The Australian Medical Assistance Team (AUSMAT) deployed to Solomon Islands last month, continues to work in partnership with Health officials in Honiara to meet critical health needs.
The deployment of the C-27Js complements Australia’s support efforts to date, which include the provision of 300,800 AstraZeneca vaccine doses, and 19 tonnes of emergency medical supplies – including 100 oxygen concentrators.
NZ people with Covid-19 are set to become their own contact tracers, and some details of an online system due to go live soon have been revealed.
From today Wednesday, the country is in phase two of the Omicron response and with daily case numbers set to hit four figures it will no longer be possible for tracing teams to call every infected person.
Getting Covid-19 used to mean a phone call, a check-in about where you had been, who you had seen and how you were feeling.
But it is hoped about 80 percent of people will now be able to do that themselves online.
Some details of the app version of the online tool are in a document on the Ministry of Health website.
Infected people will get a text with an access code that allows them on to the app. Once they are logged in they will be asked to fill out a checklist of symptoms and enter details about everyone they live with.
The next step will be uploading the Covid Tracer App diary. Anyone who does not use the app or had missing entries will be asked to add details of any high-risk places or close contacts manually.
The whole process was expected to take about 30 minutes.
Digital technology expert Dr Andrew Chen said though case numbers would soon be too big for manual contact tracing, the digital version could still bring some of the benefits.
"A lot of other jurisdictions basically gave up and "let it rip" and faced the consequences of that decision," he said.
"Using a tool like this might still help us flatten the curve a bit, make that peak that will come from Omicron less severe than it has been in Australia or the United Kingdom."
GP Api Talemaitoga said the online tool was an example of "one size fits all" that, in reality, would not work for many people.
While it was great for those who were IT savvy and had time, he could think of examples where it would be a big ask, especially for people in large households.
Chen said ordinarily it would be really difficult to get someone to spend 30 minutes filling in an online form, but he was optimistic people might see this one differently.
"When it comes to Covid, hopefully people will recognise that this is really important and that they will go through the process and they hopefully will appreciate that it is taking them less time than it would be if they were being interviewed by a human contact tracer," he said.
Comment.
Let me join all those thanking Australia for the great support with relief supplies of food and medicine for the Solomon Islands during the ongoing Covid crisis. As I mentioned earlier, I also thank Ausmat for their current partnership with the MHMS.
Thanks must also be given to Solomon Airlines for its cargo supplies being delivering much needed food and medicines country wide.
Finally to all involved in ensuring the supply and delivery of essential food needs, the LSC, the National Disaster Committee, organizations and individuals – thank you very much indeed.
The proposed app the idea to be brought into use in New Zealand may not have practical application in the Solomon Islands as of today, but contact tracing is vitally important in the fight against combatting Covid and perhaps the MHMS might be able to come up with a local solution to aid the tracing system.
Sources. AHC. MAL Radio New Zealand and Solomon Times Online.
Yours sincerely
Frank Short
