Sick are allowed to seek medical treatment & not to wait until end of lockdown

Sick people will be allowed to seek medical attention in the time of lockdown and residents with sick relatives must take them to nearby clinic or the hospital and not to wait until the end of the 36 hours’ lockdown.

This clarification was made by the director of NDMO Loti Yates as one of the findings of the lockdown in 2020 showed that sick patients were denied medical attention by their relatives because of the lockdown and their illness got very serious at the end of the lockdown.

He said as a result of that, they are encouraging those who are sick to immediately seek medical action and they would be allowed to go through the police checkpoints.

Yates said those taking sick relatives only needed to explain to those at the checkpoints that they are taking somebody whose sick and needs medical attention.

He said doctors and nurses’ report which was presented to a workshop in the past two days of the last lockdown established that there were many people who were sick during the last lockdown in 2020 but were not taken to hospital because family members feared it was lockdown so they were not taken to the hospital to seek medical treatment.

He added as a result they got really sick at the end of the lockdown.

“So it is important for me to tell the public that if some gets sick during the lockdown, use a nearby car and take the person to the nearest health clinic that is open. Once you travel through the checkpoint just explain to them that I have a sick person that needs to go to the hospital. Don’t hold that person until the end of the lockdown,” Yates told reporters this morning.

Honiara will go into a 36-hour lockdown from Sunday 29 at 6pm to 6am on 1^st September.

The Government through National Disaster Council (NDC) says the Lock-down plan was recently reviewed to take into account lessons from the lockdown last year and the delta variant. The review was done by the National Disaster Operations Committee along with stakeholders and donor partners. 

“It is vital to maintain operational alertness and sharpen the response capabilities of our frontline agencies as we continue to manage COVID-19 as well as should there be community transmission.”

News@SBMOnline2021