The Pacific island nation has logged 6,619 cases and 60 deaths, the National Control Centre for COVID-19 said in a statement on Saturday.
The island's biggest hospitals have reported that as many as 80 per cent of test results are coming back positive, with PNG Prime Minister James Marape saying the virus has"broken loose". Papua New Guinea's health system on verge of collapse as COVID-19 surges, doctors' group warnsPNG, which has a population of roughly 9 million, has been receiving shipments of vaccines from Australia and other countries.
Saibai, the northernmost of the island chain, is just a few kilometres, or a short dinghy trip, from PNG. There are currently no quarantine requirements or travel restrictions for Queensland's remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
Source: Healthcare Press (healthcarepress.net)
Top pathologist Dr. Roger Hodkinson, who is the CEO of a biotech company that makes COVID tests, says: We are seeing 'politics playing medicine, and that's a very dangerous game.' Positive test results do not mean a clinical infection, he says.