PNG Reports 4th COVID-19 Death

Papua New Guinea today reported its 4th COVID-19 death. 

The National Coordination Centre (NCC) Incident Manager Dr. Esorom Daoni told a media briefing this afternoon, the case is of a 72-year old male who was tested positive on the 12th and died on the 14th August.

Dr. Esorom said, the deceased was admitted at the Port Moresby General Hospital and had respiratory distress coupled with other illnesses like diabetes among others.

“Severe respiratory distress is a common or a very severe symptom of patients who have COVID-19.

He was tested positive on Gene-Xpert at the Port Moresby General Hospital, he also had a history of diabetes, hypertension. He was ventilated and incubated at the same time, and immediately as soon as the results came out, relayed and contact tracing done. He lives around the Boroko area, Dr. Esorom said.

Meantime, the country’s COVID-19 cases now stand at 361, 198 of whom are recovered cases and 163 are active cases.

Dr. Esorom said these cases are from 11 provinces out of the 21 provinces, including the Autonomous Region of Bougainville.

He said the nation's capital is leading with 244 cases as of Thursday 20th August, with Western Province second with 98 cases most of whom are from the Ok Tedi Mining cluster.

Dr. Esorom said Central and Morobe have 5 cases each, East New Britain has 2 cases, West Sepik, Eastern Highlands, Southern Highlands, New Ireland, Milne Bay and the Autonomous Region of Bougainville have one case each.

NBC News/PNG Today

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