Doctors

Permanent Secretary for Health, Dr James Fong said a 25-year-old female doctor, presented at a screening clinic today with COVID-like symptoms.

She was tested positive for the virus.

Dr Fong said, the second, a 30-year-old male doctor, was tested as part of contact tracing for the first doctor.

The two doctors have been entered into isolation and their close household contacts have been quarantined.

The recommendation adds to mounting opposition against American drug company Phoenix Life Sciences International.

The company is approved to manufacture drugs in Vanuatu, where it's building a clinic and pharmacy to conduct medical trials.

But the Daily Post reports Vanuatu's Medical and Dental Association saying the country isn't ready for human medical research.

In a submission to parliament last week, it said there weren't proper oversight systems in place, including independent monitoring of research.

Experts who have carried out a large study say the guidelines for hospitals on diagnosing a miscarriage need to be updated, so that women always get a second ultrasound scan two weeks after the first if the gestational sac seen in the scan is small. It is not always possible to be sure that a very small embryo with no detectable heartbeat is going to miscarry, they say.