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1 new covid-19 case
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PM assures the nation
WHILE Prime Minister Sogavare is confident in his leadership in the fight against COVID-19 the country had registered one new case of COVID-19 under the category of ships last week.
He announced this latest case in his fortnightly nationwide address yesterday.
Sogavare confirmed that the positive case was picked up because of the COVID-19 testing protocol implemented by the Oversight Committee.
“The Oversight Committee required two post arrival tests on each crew members of a logging vessel that came to Solomon Islands from a high risk country which must both be negative.
“Vessels come from low risk countries require only one post arrival test for each crew member which must be negative,” he added.
Sogavare further confirmed that the crew member that tested positive was tested negative twice before the vessel departure to Solomon Islands
He also tested negative on the first of the two post arrival tests taken on 5th July 2021
He tested positive on the 2nd post arrival test on the 13th July 2021.
In total he tested negative 3 times before the positive test.
“Fellow citizens the vessel is currently in quarantine pending the outcome of another test to be collected today (yesterday)
“If the test comes back and the result is still positive the vessel will be asked to depart from Solomon Islands back to its base port,” he added.
However, Sogavare said that if the result comes back negative the Oversight Committee will allow the vessel to load its logs for export from one single port under strict health supervision and the vessel will depart after the load.
“Fellow citizens I assure you all that there will be no risk to stevedores and operators involved in the loading if the test result comes back negative
“I am also happy to inform you that the stevedores that will be used to load the logs have all been fully vaccinated with doses of Astrazeneca vaccine,” Sogavare assured the nation.
He said that strict health protocols will be observed during loading if the vessel is cleared to loads its cargo before departing later in the week.
Meanwhile, Sogavare affirmed that cases diagnosed on vessel do not count against our numbers which remain at 20
This case like the other 4 we have previously diagnosed on two vessels will be recorded under different category.
Its understood that the country depends on logging sector as a main source for government revenue therefore the government has to do everything right to allow our logs exported.
Solomon Islands is still enjoying its COVID-19 free status for 3 months now- thanks to the current leadership and all the front-line officers.
By ANDREW FANASIA
Newsroom, Honiara
