Positive cases declining in Honiara, data shows more males infected than females

Seven-day rolling average shows a decline in the month of February compared to January with positive cases declining in the capita.

“Our testing is maintained at high levels with nearly 400 plus tests being done on an average. It means that we are seeing a real declining trend in number of positive cases in Honiara,” Minister of Health and Medical Services Dr Culwick Togamana said last night.

“Nevertheless, from the data available on 4,443 cases being analysed by our epidemiologists, more males have tested positive for COVID -19 compared to females (60% vs 40% females among those where gender information was available).  In terms of age, the majority of cases are between ages 25 to 45 years, however, the ages between 35 to 39 years’ age group records the highest number of infections,” he said.

Togamana said unfortunately, the vaccination status of these cases are largely unknown and Public Health and Emergency Surveillance Unit at the Ministry are working on linking vaccination and COVID-19 case data for improved reporting.

“Once this is addressed, we will have more in depth information into the vaccination status of positive cases recorded so far. In spite of this, the current data we have on admissions to the hospital and deaths related to COVID-19 are mostly among those unvaccinated with few only having their first COVID-19 vaccine dose,” said the minister. 

Togamana said with COVID-19 symptoms, the majority of those reporting symptoms of COVID are those 50 years and above.