Please get yourself vaccinated. In the last Delta surge, we lost a lot of people.''
Deputy Controller of the National Pandemic Response Dr Daoni Esorom reiterated this call at today's media conference.
Vaccines is one of PNG's strategies to combat COVID-19. There are currently three vaccines being rolled out in the country; Astrazeneca, Sinopharm and Johnson and Johnson. Both AZ and Sinopharm require two doses while J & J requires only one dose.
Booster shots will also soon be given as well.
Currently, Dr Daoni said data is being compiled to determine who should get a booster.
The other strategies are:
.New Normal
.Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions
.Diagnostics : Antigen rapid test kits; Polymerase Chain Reaction; Whole Genome Sequencing and ;
.Therapeutics: Molnuparivri and Paxlovid (manufactured by MERK and Pfizer) will be brought into the country to treat people who test positive to COVID-19.
The epidemiology curve has gone down.
" I believe we're recovering from Delta and bracing ourselves for a new variant,'' he says.
The new variant, Omnicron, first diagnosed in South Africa has spread to close to 80 countries.