The Ministry of Health has confirmed 12 new Covid community cases in the 24 hours to 12pm on 17 April.
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.
“The cases captured through surveillance do not represent all cases in the community; there are many more cases that have not been detected as they are asymptomatic or the person has not been tested.”
“Work is underway to quantify the level of under detection in Shefa and Sanma provinces.”
“The number of hospitalisations for people due to Covid-19 and the number of critically ill cases is currently stable however the number of Covid-19 cases that are critically ill is expected to increase over the coming week due to a lag between the outbreak starting and severe cases emerging. Additional work is underway to ensure that all information on hospitalised cases is complete,” the ministry said.
“Anyone that experiences any of the danger signs are urged to seek medical care immediately. Danger signs are symptoms such as difficulty breathing, loss of speech or mobility, confusion or chest pain.“
According to the ministry, the number of tests conducted each day has decreased in both Shefa province and Sanma province.
“The majority of tests conducted in both provinces were conducted in the hospital testing clinics. The test positivity (the percentage of all tests reported that were reported to be positive) has started to decrease in both provinces, Shefa province and Sanma province.”
“Work is underway to investigate if the decrease in positivity is real or due to changes in testing or health care seeking behaviours.”
“Testing has begun in unaffected provinces and no cases have been detected to date,” the ministry said.
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