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

Misinformation on social media hampers Papua New Guinea’s vaccination efforts.

Many people are hesitant about inoculation because of the spread of false information about vaccines, even as coronavirus cases increase, according to 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 national health department of PNG.

Infection cases rose again in February and PNG has reported 7,839 cases so far, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. However, the consensus is that the actual number is much higher, hidden by low testing capacity and other logistical difficulties.

“They’ve let us fall into a kind of complacency, a false sense of security that we got in that first wave, that we feared,” CNBC’s Will Koulouris, David Manning, Covid-19’s national pandemic response controller, told PNG.

Located in northern Australia, Papua New Guinea is a heavily forested island country with a population of less than 9 million people.

The district of the national capital, where the PNG capital, Port Moresby, is located, has the highest number of reported cases, followed by the western province, where the infection rate also increases.

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

The so-called “vaccine nationalism” has made it difficult for firing nations, as PNGs, to gain access to shoot their population. Many of them rely on an international vaccination initiative called Covax, but the supply of vaccines under this program is facing delays from India, which is also struggling to contain an increase in cases at home.

PNG launched a vaccination campaign last week using some 8,000 doses of Covid-19 shots from AstraZeneca that were donated by neighboring Australia. More doses are expected to occur in the coming weeks from China and India.

The island nation has vaccinated as many as less than 600 people so far, which has delayed it, according to Manning.

“Of course, this is attributed to the vaccine’s hesitation and you can attribute it to the lack of awareness, basically to the information around it, if there are side effects of the vaccine and the false news that is spreading. through social media, ”he said. , adding that there is comparatively less backlog of vaccine skeptics in urban areas.

Manning said Facebook contacted PNG asking how the social network could help dispel some of the misinformation that is spreading, but did not expand on the details of that conversation.

Facebook this week launched a public education campaign on PNG to help users learn how to identify and combat health misinformation. It will run for five weeks and will include graphics and videos in multiple languages.

“For this campaign, we are focusing our efforts even more toward vaccine and Covid-19-related misinformation, ensuring that Papua New Guinea can examine what they see against official public health resources,” Mia said. Garlick, director of public policy for Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands on Facebook said in a statement on Wednesday.

“This campaign is in addition to the petition we launched last week in Papua New Guinea
provide local users with Covid-19 prevention tips, ”Garlick added.

The outbreak is putting excessive stress on PNG’s already poor healthcare infrastructure.

International organizations such as Médecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) have warned of an impending collapse. Many front-line health workers, who are already few, fall ill with Covid-19, experts said.

“If they get sick, we won’t have anyone standing up, not just for Covid, but for other diseases, etc.,” Pomat of the Institute for Medical Research said.

He explained that Covid tests are only done for those who “might show up (a) a health center when they show symptoms and those who volunteer there. “

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

While PNG is collaborating with its development partners, including Australia, to ensure the supply of more test kits and components, it has also implemented stricter social restrictions. For example, businesses have been asked to deny entry to people who do not wear a mask while interprovincial travel is strictly regulated.

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

“So we have now changed our approach from a national response to a provincial response and we are working closely with those provincial health authorities that are currently flooded with surges, ”he said.