Papua New Guinea (PNG) Covid-19 outbreak, vaccination campaign

Incorrect information on social media hinders the vaccination of Papua New Guinea.

Many people are hesitant about vaccination due to false information being spread about the vaccines, even though cases of coronavirus are falling, according to the PNG’s Covid-19 response controller.

The country reported 1,730 cases and 12 deaths between March 29 and April 4, according to a joint report by the World Health Organization and the PNG’s national health department.

Infection cases had a new upswing in February and PNG has reported 7,839 cases so far, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The consensus, however, is that the actual number is much higher, hidden by low testing capacity and other logistical problems.

“We are engrossed in a sense of complacency, a false sense of security that we got over the first wave, and that we feared,” David Manning, PNG’s national Covid-19 pandemic response controller, told CNBC said Will Koulouris.

Papua New Guinea is north of Australia and is a highly populated island nation with less than 9 million inhabitants.

The National Capital District, home of PNG’s capital, Port Moresby, has the most reported cases, followed by Western Province where the infection rate is also rising.

A combination of events – funerals, holidays and the resumption of schools – has led to the “continuous transmission of the virus”, William Pomat, director of PNG’s Institute for Medical Research, told CNBC last week.

So-called “vaccine nationalism” has made it difficult for small, developing countries such as PNG to gain access to shots to vaccinate their population. Many of them rely on an international vaccination initiative called Covax, but the vaccination stock of the program is faced by India, which is also struggling to curb an increase in cases at home.

PNG instituted a vaccination process last week with approximately 8,000 doses of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 shots donated by neighboring Australia. More doses are reportedly expected in China and India in the coming weeks.

The island nation has so far vaccinated less than 600 people, according to Manning.

“Of course, it’s attributed to vaccine reluctance, and you can attribute it to a lack of awareness – basically information around the side effects of the vaccine and the fake news spread through social media,” he said. and adds that there is relatively less backlash from vaccine skeptics in urban areas.

Manning said Facebook issued PNG to ask how the social network could help dispel the misinformation being disseminated, but he did not elaborate on the details of the conversation.

Facebook launched a public education campaign in PNG this week to help users there learn how to identify and combat misinformation about health. It will last five weeks and includes graphics and videos in multiple languages.

“For this campaign, we are focusing our efforts on targeting Covid-19 and vaccine misinformation, and ensuring that Papua New Guinea is able to investigate what they see against official public health sources,” said Mia Garlick, director of public policy for Australia, the New Zealand and Pacific Islands said in a statement on Facebook on Wednesday.

‘This campaign also contributes to a designation we started last week in Papua New Guinea
offers local users Covid-19 prevention tips, ”Garlick added.

The outbreak puts excessive strain on the already weak healthcare infrastructure in PNG.

International organizations such as Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) have warned of an impending collapse. Many experts have made many front-line health workers, who are already few, get sick with Covid-19.

“If they get sick, we will have no one – not just for Covid, but for other diseases as well,” said Pomat of the Institute for Medical Research.

He explained that Covid tests are only done for those who ‘might show up (by) a health facility if they show symptoms, and those who enter voluntarily. ‘

Even then, the components needed to perform these tests run out in hospitals and medical facilities.

While PNG is working with its development partners, including Australia, to ensure more tests and components, the company has also imposed stricter social restrictions. Stores, for example, have been asked to deny access to people who do not wear masks, while travel between provinces is strictly regulated.

Manning said the response to the pandemic needs to be tailored to PNG’s coastal communities as well as the highlands, where even in the best of times it is difficult to provide health care, police or government services.

‘So we have now shifted our focus from a national response to a provincial response, and worked closely together with the provincial health authorities currently flooded by congestion, ”he said.