COVID-19 now spreads to Malaita

The COVID-19 outbreak has now gone beyond Honiara with new cases in Malaita.

Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare in his update on COVID-19 late this afternoon stated that contact tracers have now established COVID-19 cases in Auki.

Auki is the provincial capital of Malaita.

Auki is amongst the 120 cases announced by Sogavare today.

However, he did not mention how many cases were recorded in Malaita. But a senior official on Malaita has announced that Auki now has five cases of positive COVID-19.

According to Sogavare, the reason the virus has spread so quickly in only one week is because people that are infected with the virus are moving freely and taking it with them and infecting other people on the way or infecting their families.

He said in the 24 hours from 8 am yesterday morning to 8 am this morning, the laboratory tested 274 samples, of which 120 have come back positive.

The PM said the total number of positive cases diagnosed in the country has now increased to 289 of which 264 of these 289 cases have been diagnosed in the past five days from 18^th to 22^nd January 2022.

Talking about measures that are taken forward by his government, he said the best way to reduce the spread of the virus is to reduce our movements.

“I ask all members of the public to remain in your homes and only go out is you need to buy food, water, power, medicines, or go to clinics or to work while observing COVID-19 safe practice,” he said.

The outbreak started on Wednesday when health workers detected a COVID-19 positive case from a person arriving from Ontong Java on 10^th January.

Meanwhile here is the full breakdown of where the cases are detected on Guadalcanal and other places.

1. Abira
2. Borderline
3. Burns Creek
4. Fijian Quarter
5. Point Cruz
6. Gilbert Camp
7. Ranadi
8. Jackson Ridge
9. Lau Valley
10. Lord Howe Settlement
11. Mamulele
12. Mbaranaba
13. Mbokona
14. Mbokonavera / Mbokonavera 3
15. Mbua Valley
16. Naha Heights / Naha 3
17. Ngossi
18. Rove
19. Sisiga
20. Talise
21. Tasahe / Tasahe B
22. Vura / Vura 3
23. West Kola
24. White Rive
25. Zion
26. Good Samaritan Hospital catchment area
27. Ontong Java
28. Auki