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We should commend the prime minister and his government for putting the people first by declaring SOE as this is the only way for us to prevent the coronavirus... Moreover,for declaring a national fasting and prayer day for God is our only protector who will guide and continue to protect us from coronavirus...

After this 14 days of shut down is up, what would be the next move to continue this fight against the spread of COVID-19 in the country? I just hope that the govt would give directions for a 14 day quarantine/isolation for people travelling into the country from overseas. Given PNG's lack of capacity, technology and funding to fight the spread of COVID-19, we cannot allow room for mistakes to be made at all international ports both on land and at sea.

Some good points made in this post! Among all the challenges, it should also be emphasised that PNG is in quite a unique position among Pacific island countries with the testing capacity at the PNG Institute of Medical Research, which is currently being expanded from Goroka to Port Moresby. The PNGIMR has set up the SARS-CoV-2 testing protocols very rapidly. But it is important to understand in this context that the collection of samples must be done properly and that the diagnostic test is a little more complicated than measuring fever. It must be done at a specialised institution because it requires well working high-tech equipment and well trained technical staff. PNGIMR has both of it but sometimes several runs of a test may be necessary. This may happen in the best lab anywhere in the world. The current situation shows how extremely important it is for countries (governments) to provide continuous adequate funding to its health system, starting from the remote aid post to the high tech diagnostic lab. Essential equipment and well-trained staff cannot be organised overnight. Lastly, transparent and accurate information is essential. Ideally, this should come from people who know what they are talking about. It puts unnecessary additional burden on those dealing with a crisis if they constantly have to fight random fake news spread over social media and posts from people who 'know it better' in spite of a complete lack of expertise or relevant credentials. The latter is of course a global problem...

Thanks Ben for the insights. Charles Campbell Toxinology could be asked to help. You guys did some of the most advanced studies on developing Snake antivenoms, and your guys expertise will help. Especially in tests and experience over the years. We need all the help we can get from our local scientists.

All along, the disaster and emergency officials have been right in advocating on the statement: "The cost of inaction far outweighs the cost of proactive planning."

Some of our people are not taking this situation seriously, we have some people currently in Indonesia and few are kept in Boram hospital for isolation where three people escaped from isolation making it very to hard contain the virus if they are positive. This message goes to all the good citizens, please follow instructions and we keep PNG safe

Scientific workers are worthy of our respect. It is their silent efforts that provide us with treatment methods and better guarantee of our lives.

My family live in the Philippines and my wife and i are in Australia. i am a Philippine resident which i applied for and i am a Australian as well. I send money to my family as well to help them get food and all other things they need. It is a country in poverty.

Reading through the situation report is very stressful and given the current scenario our borders and international flights should be completely locked down for the next 90 days and that's how serious it gets when one takes into account the government and the country's ability to fight COVID-19. The challenge is unthinkable.

The US healthcare system is the one that needs reforming. As the number one economic power in the world it is a disgrace that we have the most people affected by covid-19. If we cannot even help our people we have no right to criticize others.

Due to our lack in many areas, the government's swift response to declare SoE and 14 days lock down was and is the only best way for us to avoid and contain the virus. We don't have the cure, nor proper isolation areas with adequate bed space, ventilation equipment, and even personal protective equipment (PPEs) for clinicians to use. That's the main reason why the nurses went on strike recently. It's a sad case at Pom Gen Hospital when they ran out of proper masks, gloves and hand sanitizer. The clinicians can work but they need to protect themselves also. The right mask to use is the N95 mask, which I last heard from a nurse was going for K100 on backmarket. Our clinicians unfortunately are using the surgical masks which are not quite effective against the virus. To make a hand sanitizer (WHO recommend), we'll need ethanol (or isopropyl alcohol), hydrogen peroxide and glycerol. Last week Monday I found a 125ml of glycerol which I made 5L of hand sanitizer and gave to the Pom Gen triage team, who are at the forefront of receiving patients. We've also given few of our snakebite equipment to the covid-19 team to use till they purchase their equipment. They are yet to buy equipment for covid-19 isolation camps. But it all depends on when the gov't secures funds. Above all, let's all do the best we can to help avoid viral infection. Washing hands and staying at home is paramount. It's also an eye-opener for the gov't to start investing in building local capacity in research, science and technology (RST), and not only on the extractive industry. The inconsistent results due to faulty equipment at IMR is a typical recipe for disaster. We need up-to-date state of the art equipment to get best results first hand and not after a series of inconsistent results. In such cases of national and global interest, there should be no room for error. The last I read was that the virus has mutated and now have strain S and strain L. (My opinion: If a local PNGan gets infected, and if it mutates to suit our genome, that's another story.) I'm entitled to my opinion and its not to put fear into anyone or any institution. Finally, it's possible to locally develop the test kit if we have the right equipment and capacity. Currently, they are trying to analyze samples using the real-time PCR machine at the IMR lab at UPNG Medical School. That's good news and I'm hoping this works. I salute the medical doctors and nurses who are out their working including lab techs of IMR and hospitals. For now, let's stand with our PM and pray and hope that no local would be infected with this virus. It's a death spirit working through fear, and we must conquer it first through prayer. God Protect Papua New Guinea.

I salute our prime minister for taking a bold step in declaring SOE in PNG immediately. It is still unclear yet the status of COVID-19 in our country, therefore we hope the Government in its upcoming sitting would extend the SOE. And this time really making sure that citizens are all locked down taking seriously this epidemic.... May God help us.