Coronavirus

Official figures show around 60,000 people in PNG have had their first dose of a vaccine, and just 1900 have had both.

A recent survey by PNG’s health department, found that just 39 per cent of people - excluding health workers - were willing to take a COVID-19 vaccine.

Church officials and leaders are now being drafted in to the fight online conspiracy theories and encourage vaccinations.

Dr Alphonse Aime is the Head of the Communications department at the Divine Word University and says more needs to be done to counter the anti-vaccination messages.

Cases have increased compared to the 485 cases and three deaths in the previous 24-hour period.

The Health Ministry announced that all three patients were unvaccinated.

Ministry of Health’s Permanent Secretary, Dr James Fong said five other people who tested positive for COVID-19 had died but their deaths have been attributed to "serious pre-existing medical conditions and not COVID-19."

Fiji has 9310 active cases in isolation. There have been 58 deaths reported, 56 of them are from the latest outbreak that began in April.

The decision comes after hundreds of medical workers caught Covid despite being fully vaccinated with Sinovac.

Instead of two Sinovac shots, people will now receive the AstraZeneca vaccine after their first Sinovac shot.

Health workers already fully vaccinated with Sinovac will also receive a third booster from a different vaccine.

This can be either the AstraZeneca vaccine, or an mRNA vaccine like Pfizer/BioNTech. This third dose will be given three to four weeks after their second Sinovac jab, said the country's National Infectious Disease Committee on Monday.

That compares to 506 cases and one death in the previous 24-hour period.

The Health Ministry said all four patients were unvaccinated.

On Friday, the ministry announced 860 positive cases and three deaths. All three patients were also not vaccinated against the virus.

Fiji now has 8576 active cases in isolation with 55 deaths - all but two of them from the latest outbreak which began in April this year. There has been a total of 10,512 COVID cases in Fiji since March, 2020.

The authorities said a woman, in her 90s, died in Sydney. She had contracted the virus in a family setting.

New South Wales reported 77 new cases on Sunday. There are now 52 people in hospital, with 15 in intensive care.

Sydney is currently in lockdown, as Australia's largest city fights to contain the highly transmissible Delta strain of the virus.

The reported death is the state's 57th and the first in 10 months.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian warned that the number of new daily infections would rise further on Monday.

Thirty-three of the cases have been out in the community while infectious.

NSW Health confirmed a woman in her 90s from south west Sydney died yesterday at Liverpool Hospital.

It is the first COVID death in NSW since December 2020.

She was a close contact of a locally acquired case and was tested for COVID-19 on Friday, returning a positive result early yesterday morning.

Health Secretary James Fong says the 55-year-old woman from Nabua was attended to by a ministry response team at a medical facility.

The woman was transferred to the Colonial War Memorial Hospital after she reported having severe symptoms of COVID-19.

"Her condition worsened in hospital and she died two days after admission. She was not vaccinated," Dr Fong said.

He said there had been two more deaths of COVID positive patients.

The Health Ministry said last night all three patients were not vaccinated against the virus.

A 56-year-old man from Davuilevu in Nausori was admitted to the Colonial War Memorial Hospital in Suva with COVID-19 symptoms (cough, fever and generalised body pains).

Health Secretary James Fong said the man had been unwell for two weeks and his condition worsened in hospital. He died three days after admission.

"The second COVID-19 death is a 68-year-old man from Suva who was referred to the CWM Hospital from the Samabula screening clinic," Dr Fong said.

Ministry of Health’s Permanent Secretary, Dr James Fong said there have been 101 new recoveries reported since the last update, which means that there are now 7,138 active cases.

Dr Fong added that there have been 8,591 cases during the outbreak that started in April 2021.

He said five of the patients who died were not vaccinated while one received only the first jab of the vaccine.

The virus is taking its toll on the elderly population with two women aged 80 succumbing to COVID-19.

The other cases are aged between 44 and 68 years.

The New South Wales state government reported 38 cases in its capital on Thursday, pushing the case number of this Delta outbreak over 370.

Authorities said people were breaching lockdown rules by going to other households.

They have pleaded with residents to abide by the stay-at-home order.

"We just need people to stop interacting for this lockdown to work," said NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian.