A New Zealand team based in Papua New Guinea, assisting with its deteriorating Covid outbreak is bracing for a peak in January.
Three New Zealand logistics staff are based in the nation’s capital of Port Moresby, while the rest of the team, including two doctors and three nurses, is in Bougainville.
The scale of the spread of the virus in Papua New Guinea is unknown, with only two per cent of the population fully vaccinated.
Vaccine hesitancy has largely been put down to misinformation being spread on social media.
Dr Emma Lawrey, part of the Kiwi cohort, is expecting to see a peak next month.
“The feeling from the national coordination team is that the rates (of Covid-19 infections) are rising in Bougainville and that the peak is probably January-ish,” she said.
The New Zealand crew work in partnership with local staff on the ground.
“If we can help teach the staff simple prevention and control measures we can prevent some of those staff from getting Covid while at work that would be a real win I think for the team," said Lawrey.
Mass burials are being held, and more than 300 dead bodies lie in the Port Moresby morgue, which should only hold around 60. About half of those people having died of Covid-19.
The Lowy Institute predicts only a third of the nation's population will be vaccinated in five years time
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