The National Referral Hospital (NRH) oxygen and food item shortage issue is now settled.
This was confirmed by Dr. Janella Solomon, medical superintendent for the NRH.
She said the issue here is mainly on an outstanding payment.
“The process to settling it has gone through now and they have provided oxygen for the NHR as of Friday 1st, 2022.
“Yes the issue has been settled, however, if there are any more outstanding payments and we will be facing the same problem but the issue we have the previous week has been settled,” Solomon said.
The Minister for Health and Medical Service Dr. Culwick Togamana also confirmed that the Hospital has been facing a shortage of food items and oxygen bottles but efforts are now being put together to address the concerns.
“Yes I can confirm that the National Referral Hospital had been facing a shortage of food items and oxygen bottles since last week,” he said.
Dr.Togamana said the issue was with outstanding payments to the suppliers of oxygen bottles and food rations delay but the outstanding payments were due to multiple factors both within and outside of the reach of the Ministry.
“Nevertheless we are working with the Ministry of Finance to expedite the payments at the earliest. Our officials have also been in touch with the suppliers for an assurance with their understanding payments and for their resumption of their services to the hospital,” he said.
Source. Island Sun newspaper
ICA funded renovations of Kiluufi hospital's ongoing
The Japanese-funded renovations for Kiluufi hospital in Malaita province are reportedly in full swing.
The project is funded by the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
Recently scoping engineering work was done on the project that will pave way for further works or developments expected on the project.
Premier Daniel Suidani said that a group of engineers from Kramer had conducted the scoping study.
“The scoping work is done in preparation for a Japanese Company that is expecting to arrive at Kilu’ufi hospital this month,” Mr. Suidani said.
He said the project is one of the major projects the MARA government is working on together with the national government and JICA to ensure the project materializes for the people in the province.
Mr.Suidani said that as the Kramer group conducted work on the project; they also carried out scoping and geotech work on the proposed factories at Gwaigeo and the road project under the Winrock programme.
“In line with the infrastructure designs for Gwaigeo land the plans are now ready to be submitted to the Malaita Province Planning and Development Board for endorsement.
“We hope the tender process can happen as early as April and work on the project will start in the second part of this year 2022,” he said.
Mr.Suidani said also that with that project, Winrock under the USAID SCALE-NRM project is working on other projects for Malu’u, Atori, Afio, Matangasi, and Luaniua in the province.
Source. Island Sun newspaper.
Vaccination coverage hits 470k doses administered
The country’s vaccination progress has seen about 473,000 doses administered so far.
This was confirmed by Dr. Yogesh Choudhri, technical advisor for the Ministry of Health and Medical Services.
“As of last week we have administered 473,000 doses of the vaccination which include AstraZeneca Sinopharm and Pfizer covid-19 vaccine,” Dr. Choudhri said.
He said the total number of AstraZeneca administered is 390,000 doses, Sinopahrm with 62,000 doses, and Pfizer 21,000 doses.Dr, Choudhri said.
He added in terms of distribution nationally 2/3 of the population which is 64 percent have been given one dose and 42 percent of the people have been vaccinated with both doses.
Dr. Choudhri said vaccination coverage at the provincial level is as follows Isabel province 67 percent with two doses, Makira more than half, Rennel and Bellona 43 percent, Honiara 92 percent, and the figure also includes other people coming from the provinces, Temotu province is covered with nearly half of the people with two doses but still lagging behind Guadalcanal and Malaita Province.
“We again encourage people to come forward and start taking the vaccine if they are yet to get their first jab and those due for the second jab but did not receive it,” he said.
Source – Solomon Star news
Government Public Health Emergency Bill 2021
The government responded positively to those issues, and created the Public Health Emergency Bill 2021, "it is an irony then that the BLC choose to sit on it rather than moving it forward."
The government further stated that now that the country is facing the COVID- 19 community transmission, the BLC has a lot to answer for taking too long to submit its report to parliament.
The government highlighted that the bill is part of the government’s Community Transmission Response Policy.
The policy’s narrative reads “manage community transmission, protect our vulnerable citizens, maintain economic livelihoods, improve health capability and implement health system reforms to overcome and stand united post-pandemic”.
The Bills and Legislation Committee is responsible for reviewing all the draft legislation before they are introduced into Parliament and makes a written report to each meeting of Parliament containing the observations and
The government responded positively to those issues, and created the Public Health Emergency Bill 2021, "it is an irony then that the BLC choose to sit on it rather than moving it forward."
Government further stated that now that the country is facing the COVID- 19 community transmission, the BLC has a lot to answer for taking too long to submit its report to parliament.
Government highlighted that the bill is part of government’s Community Transmission Response Policy.
The policy’s narrative reads “manage community transmission, protect our vulnerable citizens, maintain economic livelihoods, improve health capability and implement health system reforms to overcome and stand united post pandemic”.
The Bills and Legislation Committee is responsible for reviewing all the draft legislation before they are introduced into Parliament and makes a written report to each meeting of Parliament containing the observations and Government responded positively to those issues, and created the Public Health Emergency Bill 2021, "it is an irony then that the BLC choose to sit on it rather than moving it forward."
The government further stated that now that the country is facing the COVID- 19 community transmission, the BLC has a lot to answer for taking too long to submit its report to parliament.
The government highlighted that the bill is part of the government’s Community Transmission Response Policy.
The policy’s narrative reads “manage community transmission, protect our vulnerable citizens, maintain economic livelihoods, improve health capability and implement health system reforms to overcome and stand united post-pandemic”.
The Bills and Legislation Committee is responsible for reviewing all the draft legislation before they are introduced into Parliament and makes a written report to each meeting of Parliament containing the observations.
Source. Solomon Times Online.
(NZ) 14,120 community cases of Covid 19, 23 further deaths, 692 people in hospital
There are 14,120 community cases of Covid-19 and 23 further deaths to report today.
This is a jump in numbers from yesterday, when there were only over 10,000 cases, but a fall in hospitalizations.
The Ministry of Health says the jump in numbers is not unexpected as there is usually lower testing and reporting on the weekends.
There are now 692 people in hospital, with 30 people in ICU or HDU.
The total number of publicly reported deaths with Covid-19 is now 428.
Of the 23 people whose deaths are reported today, eight were from the Auckland region, six from Waikato, two from the Bay of Plenty, two from Lakes, one from Whanganui, two from the Wellington region, one from Canterbury, and one from Southern.
One person was in their 40s, five were in their 60s, two were in their 70s, eight were in their 80s, and seven were over 90.
They include people who have died over the past nine days. The Ministry says the delay in reporting can be because people died from Covid-19, rather than of Covid-19, and because Covid-19 may have only been discovered after someone has died.
The seven day rolling average of community cases is 12,785.
At the border, 48 new cases are being reported.
There were 23,363 rapid antigen tests reported in the last 24 hours, and 5,967 PCR tests.
There have now been 4,025,668 first doses of a vaccine administered; 3,975,064 second doses; 34,418 third primary doses; 2,590,992 booster doses: 259,550 paediatric first doses and 92,126 paediatric second doses.
Yesterday, the Ministry of Health reported 10,205 new community cases of Covid-19 and nine further deaths.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern also announced at yesterday's Post-Cabinet media briefing that the country will remain at the red Covid-19 traffic light setting.
She said the rolling average of cases had declined 36 percent in the two weeks since the government refined the traffic light system.
Source- Radio New Zealand.
Yours sincerely
Frank Short
