More than 20 volunteers from Ward 3 and 4 of Goroka Urban LLG, who are assisting the Eastern Highlands Provincial Health Authority and Police Taskforce to enforce the Niupela Pasin during the lockdown period in EHP, undertook an awareness session at the PNG Institute of Medical Research on November 9, 2021. PNGIMR COVID-19 team member and scientist, Valentine Siba, gave a short awareness session on the new delta variant, explained why taking vaccine was important and reminded the participants on Niupela Pasin strategy on the importance of wearing face masks, social distancing and vaccination.
‘This awareness is to help the volunteers to understand and give the right information to the public on why wearing masks is important. This will reduce the number of COVID-19 cases in Eastern Highlands,’ he said.
Mr Siba added that similar awareness will be conducted later to the other volunteers from other LLG’s.
The volunteer’s team leader Mr Chrisien Negio expressed his gratitude for the awareness. He thanked the institute for giving them the opportunity to receive first-hand information to help the public with any misleading information.
‘We are grateful and privileged to have come. This awareness has cleared our minds and we now understand the importance of being vaccinated and why we must persuade the public to wear face masks at all times,’ he said.
According to the statistics from the National Control Centre for COVID-19, Eastern Highlands has recorded 2361 number of cases, 69 deaths and 2 confirmed delta variant cases.
