THE National Health Emergency Operation Centre through its ‘Emergency Response Plan’ to validate, track, and contain a potential COVID-19 outbreak is now active.
This came after a student who returned from the Philippines tested positive for COVID-19 this week during a follow-up test in Malaita Province.
The student was released from quarantine in November 2020.
In light of the situation the Ministry of Health and Medical Services (MHMS)
has responded by reactivating the National Health Emergency Operation Centre (NHEOC) of MHMS to validate, track, and contain a potential COVID-19 outbreak, a statement issued by MHMS said last night.
The incident involved one of the students who returned from the Philippines during the first repatriation flight on 29th September 2020.
The statement said the student initially tested positive for COVID-19 but has fully recovered.
“He was released from a government quarantine station on 24th November 2020.”
However, during a follow-up test on Tuesday – 26th January 2021, 62 days after his release, he tested positive, the statement said.
Initial reports said the student who was in Malaita Province was contacted to go for his follow-up review and re-swabbing at Kiluúfi hospital on 26th January 2021.
His swab was transferred to the Honiara Molecular Laboratory the same day where it was found to be positive for COVID-19 with the GeneXpert machine, the statement added.
“Based on this result the NHEOC immediately swung into action and managed to locate the student who had traveled to Honiara from Auki by boat on Wednesday.
“The student was located at 10.30 pm Wednesday night and re-swabbed. His result by GeneXpert machine is now NEGATIVE.
“We are waiting for his result on the qPCR machine. However, we also expect the qPCR result to be negative as well,” the ministry of health said.
The student is now recovering at the Field Hospital, Multi-purpose Hall.
The ministry also dispatched an ‘emergency field team’ at 6 am yesterday morning on a Solomon Airlines chartered flight to visit the village where the student has spent his break over the past few weeks.
Other colleagues from Kiluufi hospital and Auki police joined the team to travel to the village to do contact tracing, undertake community awareness, and to swab every person in the village, the ministry said.
The team will return to Honiara today with the swabs for analysis.
The ministry said NHEOC has conducted an initial risk assessment.
“Based on the two results using the GeneXpert machine, and the nature and characteristics of Covid-19, it is very unlikely that the virus was infective.
“In other words, it is unlikely the student would infect other people,” the ministry said.
The Minister of Health and the Prime Minister (PM) Manasseh Sogavare had been fully briefed and PM had also briefed the Cabinet about the situation.
The PM will provide further updates today on this situation.
The MHMS and the Office of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (OPMC) appeal to members of the public to remain calm.
“The student is now negative for Covid-19 and it is unlikely he had infected other people,” the statement assured.
The public has been further advised not to believe stories that come from other sources because they are not true.
Please listen out today for more details through the PM’s release.
