PM fears COVID spreading after captain attends funeral, passengers travel to West & Makira

Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare has expressed concern that some passengers who arrived on Awka on 10^th January had already travelled to some provinces whilst the captain had attended a funeral on Guadalcanal.

In announcing a record 48 cases today of COVID-19 continues to spread since the first case was diagnosed yesterday from a passenger retuning from Ontong Java, Sogavare was concerned about the other passengers who had travelled to other provinces.

“It is of serious concern that some of the passengers from the vessel that arrived on 10^th January 2022 have already travelled to centres in other provinces including to Noro, and to Santa Catalina of Makira Ulawa province.

“The captain of the vessel also disembarked after arrival on 10^th of January and attended a funeral somewhere in Guadalcanal,” he said. The PM however did not reveal where exactly on Guadalcanal the captain attended the funeral.

He continued: “This simply means that these people could already spread the virus to these provinces. Our health team is following the trails of these people to test them while also focussing efforts to contain the outbreaks in Honiara and Ontong Java.”

Honiara currently is in lockdown until Saturday morning as front-liners carry out contact tracing in various parts of the city.

News@SBMOnline2022