THE five active cases of COVID-19 currently in the isolation facilities are asymptomatic and clinically stable.
Ministry of Health and Medical Services acting Incident Controller Dr Gregory Jilini during the Radio Talk-Back Show on Sunday said this is good news for the country.
“For the five positive cases that we have now at the isolation facilities they are asymptomatic and they’re clinically stable,” he said.
The five active cases will be discharged only after they receive three consecutive negative results from their COVID-19 tests.
“…each one will only be released after they returned three consecutive negative tests for seven days apart. That is our current protocol for any cases with active COVID-19,” Dr Jilini said.
He said to date, Solomon Islands has a total of 25 positive COVID-19 cases, all of which are contained within the quarantine facilities and isolation wards.
He said of the five cases, one has the Delta variant and the other four the Omicron variant.
“The risk is we have these two transmissible variants detected in our quarantine facilities, for this reason we do routine contact tracing for all people in the quarantine.
“But the good news is they are asymptomatic and clinically stable,” Dr Jilini said.
According to the Ministry of Health and Medical Services protocol, those in quarantine who tested positive after 10days in quarantine will need to undergo three negative test results seven days apart before they are discharged.
The ministry will also conduct another risk assessment and when others are exposed to COVID-19 their quarantine period will be extended for another 14days due to the incubation period of the virus.
Currently more than 40 people are awaiting the completion of their extended quarantine period. However, these people will only be discharged if their tests are negative.
By LACHLAN EDDIE
Newsroom, Honiara
