PNG reports fourth covid-19 death as total infections reach 361

Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk

Papua New Guinea has reported its fourth covid-19 death with infection cases now reaching 361, reports NBC News.

National Coordination Centre (NCC) Incident Manager Dr Daoni Esorom told a media briefing yesterday of the case of a 72-year old male who had tested positive on August 12 and died two days later.

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 and hypertension.

The patient was ventilated and incubated at the same time, and immediately as soon as the results came out, relayed and contact tracing done. He lived around the Boroko area, Dr Esorom said.

Meanwhile, the country’s covid-19 cases now stand at 361 – 198 of them are recovered cases and 163 are active.

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

He said the nation’s capital had the highest total with 244 cases as of Thursday, August 20, with Western Province second with 98 cases, most of whom were from the Ok Tedi mining cluster.

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