20 February 2022
On the international, global scale, there are confusing reports about Covid-19 and the same can be said, I suspect, about the situation in the Solomon where transmissions have been steadily increasing daily from the epi-centre of infections in Honiara to the provinces.
At home, in the Solomon Islands, despite the increasing virus spread, I have read that most patients in Noro after contracting Covid have recovered after self isolation at home and in Ontong Java Covid sufferers have recovered on their own by talking local herbs and holy water.
What are such reports indicative of self-isolation at home and can the government claim self isolation has been a successful policy approach by the MHMS despite the difficulties home isolation must pose in the context of large families under one roof at home in the Solomon Islands?
The Opposition Leader, the Hon. Matthew Wale had some doubts home isolation could work for the reason I have explained.
Mr. Wale has also been somewhat critical of government policy over the strategy adopted to fight Covid and especially since the Health Minister recently said he didn’t exactly know how many Covid sufferers there were in the community.
In a democracy the opposition plays a crucial role in keeping a check on the government’s policy and actions and I have no criticism of Mr. Wale seeking answers from the government on its approach to tackling the Covid crisis, save to say it has to be acknowledged that the government, and particularly the Prime Minister cautioned and advised for many weeks before Covid managed to gain a foothold of the priority need for citizens to get themselves vaccinated as the surest way to protect themselves and the community from contracting Covid.
It is only now, as the virus has seen unfortunate deaths and the swift transmission of the Covid virus, said to have been the serious Delta variant, that the larger community has decided to get a vaccination.
The virus was active offshore in Fiji, New Zealand, Australia, Papua New Guinea, and in neighbouring Bougainville for many months when the Prime Minister, accurately forecast the likely outcome for Covid implications in the Solomon Islands if it reached home and still people chose to ignore his advice, reminding me that prevention is better than a cure, as the old saying goes.
There seems to be some optimism overseas, in the USA and the UK that the Omicron variant of Covid is on the decline and there has began a relaxation of the strict rules on self-isolation, the wearing of face masks, social distancing, gatherings in numbers, all leaning I suspect towards a recognition of Covid as an endemic problem and one that people will have get used to living with, just like we do with flu.
Personally I can’t see that happening in the Solomon Islands for a considerable time, if at all, simply because not enough citizens are yet fully vaccinated and gained antibodies to ward off the virus.
Denmark began lifting the restrictions that the USA and the UK are now proposing a few months ago, but it was clearly a premature and wrong move because now the country is experiencing a surge in fresh virus cases, hospitalizations, and even deaths.
What kind of message does it indicate for the Solomon Islands? It says to me, quite simply, all unvaccinated citizens should get vaccinated as soon as possible, people should remain cautious and heed MHMS advice, particularly in their behaviours like social distancing, avoid crowds and practice good hygiene with frequent hand washing and using hand gel.
“Covid is teaching us all to be humble accepting humility at the turn of events and humble too in respect of projections of the virus as it is known new variants can be created that can greater problems than being exposed currently.
All that said, there are a couple of happenings likely this week that are seen as welcome.
The first is that Solomon Airlines has announced that effective tomorrow, 21 February 2022, Australia's new international border rules allow fully COVID-19 vaccinated visa holders from Solomon Islands to enter the country without testing or quarantine requirement. So for the first time in 2 years, we've restored our normal booking process for our Honiara to Brisbane weekly flight. You can book seats one-way via the website www.flysolomons.com or with a travel agent.
The Brisbane to Honiara flight is still only bookable through SAL’s Sales Offices in Honiara and Australia due to the border restrictions and process for travel into Solomon Islands.
One can read more by turning to: Solomon Airlines welcomes Australia opening their borders.
THE National Referral Hospital (NRH) is expected to resume its normal referral services from tomorrow.
The hospital’s chief executive officer Dr George Malefoasi has said services will resume for non-communicable diseases, patients’ reviews, surgical clinic checks and patients who have been waiting for review with chronic illnesses.
Dr Malefoasi was speaking during the Radio Talkback Show on (Saturday 19th February) afternoon.
The NRH was forced to cancel its normal services and focused only on emergencies during the outbreak of the COVID-19 community transmission last month.
Dr Malefoasi said a lot of changes also happened at the hospital since the Australia Medical Assistance Team (AUSMAT) came two weeks ago.
He said one of the changes was the establishment of a special High Dependence Unit for COVID-19 patients.
“We now have the special high dependency unit which we created at the hospital and this was the result of the AUSMAT teams help when they were here but who have now left.
“They helped us put together the particular specialist ward and the ward is very important to manage the very sick ones,” the NRH CEO said.
He said currently at the NRH 46 per cent of the beds occupied are patients with COVID infection and the rest non-COVID related illnesses.
“Now we have both COVID infection patients who have been admitted for COVID related illness as well as non-COVID illnesses.
“We also still have non-COVID occupancy patients who are sick and additionally we have 87patients still waiting for other treatment in gynae, antenatal and in medical wards, also in surgical wards, who are not Covid patients but who are waiting treatment,” Dr Malefoasi said.
He also confirmed that staff numbers have increased in the past week since the community outbreak of Covid-19 in Honiara.
On staffing levels Dr. Malefoasi said, “We are slowing building up staff usually an average of three to four doctors, five to nine nurses with support from nurse aides.
“During week two of the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, we really suffered from staffing Levels but we are slowly getting back and we are going to see if we can improve on staffing position,” Dr.Malefoasi announced.
Yours sincerely
Frank Short
