COVID-19

12 new Covid cases in Vanuatu

Eight of the cases are in Shefa province and four in Sanma.

Three of them are hospitalised in Shefa.

In the latest update, the ministry said there are 1075 current cases.

There were 121 recoveries in the same reporting period and a majority of them were in SANMA  

The death toll for Covid-19 is seven.

The ministry said the number of new cases in both Shefa and Sanma province has decreased as the number of testing decreased over the reporting period.

New South Wales records 1 million Covid-19 cases in just over two months

The unofficial number might have reached that milestone even sooner.

NSW Health yesterday recorded 15,683 new Covid cases, taking the state's tally to over 2m since the start of the pandemic.

It's an official number, but the actual number of cases is probably far higher.

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said on Wednesday - shortly before he contracted the virus - that cases were estimated to be under-reported by about 50 percent owing to people not being symptomatic or not reporting mild cases.

Vanuatu administers over 200,000 doses of Covid vaccine

According to the Ministry of Health, 77 per cent of all adults have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

The ministry’s latest report as of 3 April shows that 68.6 per cent of the eligible population are fully vaccinated.

“This large increase in the proportion fully vaccinated relative to last week is in part due to reconciling a backlog of data entry.”

The provinces of Santo, Shefa, Torba and Malampa report 69 to 78 per cent of all adults are fully vaccinated.

Penama and Tafea provinces have low rates of fully vaccinated populations.

 

Covid-19: Nine new symptoms added to official list

The move comes more than two years into the pandemic, and just days after free testing ended in England.

However, the NHS cautions that many of the new symptoms "are very similar" to those for colds and flu.

The original signs of a Covid infection that were recognised in the UK were:

Shanghai lockdown: Economy shaken by zero-Covid measures

But in recent days the usually bustling financial centre has been stopped in its tracks after a spike in coronavirus cases.

With little notice, officials imposed two staggered waves of lockdowns on the city's more than 26m residents. The eastern side of Shanghai has just been through four days of tight restrictions. The western part began its four-day isolation on 1 April.

The latest round of quarantining is China's largest since the coronavirus outbreak was first identified in Wuhan at the end of 2019.

Vanuatu records 167 new cases, 16 in hospital

The cases were reported in the 24-hour period to 2pm 1 April in Shefa and Sanma provinces.

According to the ministry, there are 3881 cases confirmed since 1 January 2022.

There are 2279 active cases currently reported and 1601 recovered.

 

     

PNG loosens some of the rules around Covid

There have not been recent public revelations of the numbers of Covid cases and deaths, but at least 639 fatalities have been recorded.

From today the need for booster shots to reach fully vaccinated status are dropped - two doses will suffice.

People arriving by boat, including cruise ships, will no longer require tests within 72 hours of boarding, but they have to be fully vaccinated and will be tested on arrival.

People arriving by air, internationally or domestically, must be fully vaccinated unless they are PNG citizens or permanent residents.

WHO says 'priority' must be on vulnerable groups as Vanuatu battles COVID

There are almost 300 active infections in the country and one woman who tested positive to COVID-19 has died.

The ministry of health is investigating that case to find out if her death was a result of her COVID-19 infection.

The WHO's Country Liaison officer Dr Eunyoung Ko said authorities need to prioritise the health of vulnerable groups.

"The government is trying hard to stop the spread of COVID into the communities," she said.

Solomons' Covid figures soar

This takes the total number of cases since January to more than 9,000.

There have been 120 deaths related to Covid infections, according to the Ministry of Health and Medical Services.

     

Vanuatu Covid-19 patient critically ill, health workers fear for country's low vaccination rates

Several health workers have contracted the virus, including Dr Basil Leodoro, President of the Vanuatu Association for Public Service Employees, who is currently in quarantine after experiencing mild symptoms.

"In Vanuatu, we understand completely the struggles that health and frontline workers are going to face," Dr Leodoro told Pacific Beat.

"Myself being a health worker, and contracting Covid-19, this is all the more real for me now."