Coronavirus

Health authorities confirmed the country's first two deaths on Tuesday.

During a media conference on Thursday night, Health Minister Dr Culwick Togamana, said they are expecting more cases in the coming days.

He said community transmission was now widespread in the capital Honiara and some provincial areas.

"For the Western Province, a surge in flu-like illness was noted in Rukutu Village where we suspect a recent gathering involving those who travelled from Honiara and may have transmitted Covid-19.

There are 116 people infected on the island - 36 imported and 80 local cases.

Nine new cases have been found in Butaritari Island, prompting the government to advise local authorities to enforce a lockdown.

Several other islands have been placed under strict restrictions - including South Tarawa, Betio, and Buota - to stop the virus from spiralling out of control.

Meanwhile, the government said that from today, fishermen in South Tarawa and Betio would only be allowed to go fishing between 6am and 2pm.

Solomon Business Magazine reports Health Minister Culwick Togamana announced the deaths this afternoon along with the latest figures showing 650 cases of Covid-19 as of midday Tuesday.

The two victims were a 51-year-old female and a 59-year-old male who had pre-existing conditions, including diabetes and high-blood pressure before contracting the virus.

They passed away on Monday night at the National Referral Hospital.

The authorities say there are now 2520 active cases in the community.

20 people are in hospital care of whom seven are in intensive care.

The surge in case numbers follows the arrival of the Omicron variant this month and has prompted calls for more testing centres to open as more people show symptoms.

Rapid antigen tests with health professionals are free until at least the end of the month.

Selftests can be bought in pharmacies but their results aren't recognised to be able to get a health pass.

More than 200 new cases were recorded over the weekend with the Prime Minister warning that case numbers would climb as testing continues.

Health Minister Culwick Togamana told the ABC that authorities were facing a major challenge to contain the outbreak.

“The COVID-19 community transmission occurred before we detected the first case, it has already spread,” said Dr Culwick.

He said the country could only do 180 tests every 12 hours and modelling showed that cases could be in the thousands.

Under the new measures, people have been told to stay at home and social gatherings are banned.

Some 36 people on the flight from Fiji have tested positive. Four people have caught the virus from community transmission.

Until last week, Kiribati had recorded just two Covid cases.

Kiribati is one of the most isolated islands in the world. It is some 4,800km (2,980 miles) from its nearest continent, Australia.

The Ministry of Education confirmed that the teachers are from Kindergarten, Primary and Secondary schools.

Education Minister, Premila Kumar said some students have been trained to become Covid monitors.

This is a support system created in schools by the Ministry.

Kumar said the students will be supporting teachers in monitoring the health of their classmates and ensuring a safe environment for learning.

It takes to 81 the number of cases in the country, which until this week had had just a handful of people with the virus.

The cases are spread throughout the country with Ontong Java and parts of Guadalcanal in lockdown.

The outbreak began with the illegal entry of a vessel from Papua New Guinea to Ontong Java last week.

That vessel delivered at least 23 cases of Covid-19.

The virus has since spread to Guadalcanal, prompting a lockdown in Honiara that is due to finish tomorrow morning.

Of the patients in hospital, there are 122 in intensive care, 40 of whom are receiving ventilation.

The state has officially recorded 21,966 new Covid-19 infections, but the true number of new cases in the community could be much higher.

About half of the state's cases have been diagnosed using RATs, with yesterday's tally reported from 11,693 PCR results and 10,273 rapid testing kits.

Considering these figures, Premier Daniel Andrews said it was clear Covid-19 was prevalent in Victoria.

The Ministry of Health confirmed that there are 659 new cases of which 312 new cases were recorded on Tuesday and 347 new cases yesterday.

Meanwhile, there have been six deaths recorded as well from the virus.

MOH’s Permanent Secretary for Health, Doctor James Fong said due to the protection afforded by the vaccination programme, the reported deaths have been much less compared to the previous wave.