LARGEST INCREASE: 48 NEW CASES INCLUDE: CREWS, FAMILY MEMBERS & OTHERS

Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare has announced the largest increase of COVID-19 positive cases, 48 in total, since declaring community transmission yesterday.

“I regret to inform you all that we have experienced the largest increase in positive cases of COVID-19 in Solomon Islands in the past 24 hours,” he said.

Sogavare said the Ministry of Health has advised that “we have diagnosed a total of 48 new cases of COVID-19 between 8am yesterday morning to 8am this morning.”

This has increased the total number of cases of COVID-19 diagnosed in the country to 81 – which represent an increase by 61 cases in the past month alone.

So where the cases come from:

• 23 cases are crews of a vessel that have been exposed to passengers that travelled from Ontong Java on another vessel and were returning to Ontong Java.
• 9 cases are members of the family of a person that arrived in Honiara on from Ontong Java on 10^th January 2022
• 4 cases are staff of Solomon Islands Maritime Authority and Solomon Islands Enterprises Ltd that had come into contact with a crew and a passenger from the vessel that arrived in Honiara on 10^th January 2022
• 2 cases are from the Lord Howe Settlement and 1 from police headquarters
• 9 cases are from the Emergency Department of the National Referral hospital, 3 staff and 6 patients.

Sogavare said the Emergency Department of the NRH is closed as of last night following the diagnosis of the 9 positive cases.

He said all the 48 new cases in Honiara are from local transmission.

They occur in different parts in the city – so COVID-19 has infiltrated Honiara, Sogavare admitted/

He said 47 of the 48 cases are linked to the people that travelled to Honiara from Ontong Java.

The health team is currently investigating the source of infection for the 48^th positive case.

News@SBMOnline2022