THE Ministry of Health and Medical Services on Thursday held an awareness talk on the Coronavirus (COVID19) with the staff and students of the University of South Pacific (USP) Campus in Honiara.
Speaking at the event, Health promotion Officer Ms. Dian Maggie Row highlighted that Coronavirus (COVID19) is a large family of viruses known to common several diseases.
She stated that the virus has the general name of the virus groups and later it differentiated from the group of viruses, and called COVID 19.
Ms. Row said the first identification of the virus was in December 2019. Later, World Health Organization (WHO) has declared that the virus shares 88 percent (%) of its identity with the sample of Bats (flying fox) which originally comes from the animals before transmitted to humans.
She added that the first notifications were from the 21st of December 2019
“CONVID 19 is a new strain of Coronavirus that is affecting Humans transmitted from animals,” she added.
Meanwhile, the awareness team has assured members of the public that the Ministry is taking the lead in working with other stakeholders to keep the threats of the Coronavirus under control.
By GEORGE GWAMANI
