PRIME Minister Manasseh Sogavare has encouraged the country to get vaccinated.
Despite experiencing low-level community transmission from COVID-19, and the risk of importation of COVID-19 through international arrivals including possible new variants of the diseases, he said COVID-19 vaccination remains the main preventative strategy against COVID-19 in Solomon Islands.
He said the government therefore continues to encourage all eligible citizens in the country who are yet to receive their COVID-19 vaccination to please get vaccinated.
“Fellow citizens as I have stated earlier, despite still experiencing low-level community transmission from COVID-19, and despite the risk of importation of COVID-19 through international arrivals including possible new variants of the diseases, going forward:
- we will not re-institute SOPE,
- we will not go back into lockdowns, and
- we will no longer institute ‘pre-diagnosis’ mandatory institutional quarantine for international arrivals or for contacts of positive cases of COVID-19.
“We have now declared COVID-19 a ‘quarantinable disease’ under the Health Quarantine Legislation which will allow health to quarantine persons infected with COVID-19 in home quarantine or other appropriate quarantine arrangements, but only after they have been diagnosed with COVID-19,” he said.
He said the country will also ensure all international arrivals to Solomon Islands continue to have a negative PCR test for COVID-19 within 72 hours of arrival in the country, and they must be fully vaccinated, except for children that cannot be vaccinated.
“Our immigration regulation is being amended to ensure we continue to require pre-arrival negative PCR tests for all international arrivals. All international arrivals will continue to have their COVID-19 tests 3 days after arrival,” he said.
He said any person that returns a positive PCR test within 72 hours of arrival in the country will not be boarded. They will have to undergo home quarantine in the country they test positive in and can only travel when they test negative for COVID-19.
By FOLLET JOHN
Solomon Star, Honiara
