SOLOMON Islands recorded 1226 new COVID-19 cases in the last 72 hours from yesterday to bring the country’s total positive cases to 14,182.
Ministry of Health and Medical Services (MHMS) permanent secretary Pauline McNeil, in a brief rundown of the country’s current COVID-19 status yesterday, said of the 1226 new cases, 1037 are from Honiara alone.
“A large scale of community transmission is ongoing in Honiara,” Mrs McNeil said.
She said since the start of COVID-19 community transmission, Honiara has recorded 6662 positive cases and of this figure, 1105 cases are from the current second wave of COVID infections which started last week.
“This gives a big jump of COVID-19 transmission in Honiara,” Mrs McNeil said.
For the provinces, the permanent secretary said Temotu Province yesterday recorded its first COVID-19 case from a swab collected on Saturday.
Malaita Province detected 11 new cases to bring the number of COVID-19 positive cases in the province to 1103.
In Guadalcanal Province, Mrs McNeil said 81 new cases were detected recently bringing the province’s total number of positive COVID-19 cases to 711.
No reports were received from Western Province, however, Mrs McNeil said the province’s current total number of positive cases sits at 2107.
Choiseul Province recorded seven new COVID-19 cases bringing the province’s total case count to 463.
Isabel Province recorded 27 new cases to bring the province’s total number of case count to 1027. No reports were received from Makira Ulawa Province but the province’s total case sits at 1203.
Rennell Bellona Province recorded two new cases and the province’s new total is 222. Central Islands Province recorded 61 new cases and the province’s new total case count is 674.
With these increasing figures, Mrs McNeil encouraged those in the country who are yet to be vaccinated to do so immediately because the second wave of COVID-19 infection has loomed.
By LACHLAN EDDIE
Newsroom, Honiara
