Australia will vaccinate the leading health workers of Papua New Guinea, as well as residents of the ‘treaty villages’ in the coronavirus-plagued Western Province along the northern border of Australia.
Eight thousand doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from local stock in Australia will be rushed north next week as PNG struggles with a burgeoning infection rate threatening the country’s already fragile health system. Hundreds of doctors and nurses were infected, in some cases due to a lack of protective equipment.
Australia has also requested 1 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine for PNG – and will pay for it.
The number of cases in PNG is increasing exponentially, rising from less than 1,000 one month ago to 2,269. But little is tested about the archipelago.
Just over 54,000 tests were carried out across the country – almost 9 million inhabitants – during the entire pandemic, and the actual infection rate is factors higher.
In many places outside the capital, Port Moresby, there is no testing at all. PNG government sources say that the actual rate of action could be ten times the official figure.
Australia has already linked 200,000 vaccine doses to PNG, but it would not arrive until April.
But Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Wednesday dedicated 8,000 doses to frontline workers in PNG and to residents of the treaty towns bordering Australia.
Australia will also send medical supplies, including fans, masks, gowns and gloves. Passenger flights from PNG to Cairns were suspended for two weeks, and outbound flights from Australian airports to PNG were also suspended, except for essential and critical workers.
“They are our family, they are friends and their neighbors,” Morrison said of PNG.
“It’s in Australia’s interest and it’s in our region’s interest and it is our duty as Australians to protect the health of our own citizens but also our PNG family who love us so much.”
Australia’s chief medical officer Paul Kelly said the situation in PNG had deteriorated rapidly and the true extent of the outbreak was not known.
“Of the cases diagnosed in PNG, half have been diagnosed in the last few weeks since the onset of the pandemic,” he said. “Realizing that they do not have the means for mass testing like we have in Australia … a number you see from Papua New Guinea, and even deaths, would be a huge underestimation.”
It has been confirmed that twenty-six people in PNG died from Covid-19. The actual death toll is thought to be significantly higher.
The funeral and burial of the founding father of PNG, Sir Michael Somare, had massive rallies in Port Moresby and Wewak last week, fearing the memorials could serve as a super-distributor, the consequences of which will be seen in the coming weeks.
The number of people admitted to Queensland Hospital with Covid-19 has doubled in the past ten days due to infected people flying in from PNG.
Thirty-two confirmed cases were imported from PNG in Australia, and 13 remain in hospital.
Last week, Cairns Hospital declared a ‘code yellow’ – an internal emergency as the hospital approached capacity – following an influx of Covid-positive patients, particularly miners from the Ok Tedi mine in the Western Province.
Queensland Health said three patients remained in hospital while four others were transferred to other Queensland hospitals.
In Australian Torres Street, local mayor Phillemon Mosby told Guardian Australia that the border with PNG should remain closed while vaccinations are being rolled out over islands. Vaccinations began on Saibai Island on Monday.
“Our communities are small and with overcrowded living conditions,” Mosby said. “Only one case in the community would spread quickly, our people are vulnerable and an outbreak would be catastrophic.”
The border between the treaty towns of PNG and Australia is usually porous: under the Treaty of Torres Street, traditional residents of the islands and towns can move along the countries’ shared border without restriction between the two countries.
But all cross-border movements have been suspended since March.
A spokesman for the Australian Border Force said the ban on cross-border travel would remain ‘until further notice’ and that ABF was closely monitoring the situation in close cooperation with Australian and Papua New Guinea counterparts.
Mat Tinkler, deputy chief executive of Save the Children in Australia, said Australia’s urgent health intervention was welcome, but that its support should extend.
“There is no such thing as JobKeeper or JobSeeker in PNG, and the health crisis is a mask of an underlying crisis of poverty only exacerbated by Covid,” he said.
He said the secondary consequences of the emerging pandemic were potentially ‘life-threatening’, apart from the risk of Covid infection.
“Parents struggle to provide food and shelter, and young girls are forced to abandon their education and be forced into child marriage. Domestic violence, already at endemic levels, is on the rise. ”