Government agencies working at the front line in the country’s fishing town, Noro, has called on the national government to build quarantine and isolation centres as soon as possible.
In a meeting last week with a team from National Emergency Operation Centre (NEOC), Noro frontline workers highlighted the need for quarantine and isolation centre seeing that their expose to bulk carrier vessels and fishing boats poses a high risk for any possible importation of the deadly virus.
“We take the risk by boarding these incoming vessels for clearance exercises.
“What if someone contracted the virus? Where should we go? We all have families and we don’t want to risk lives of our children,” the front line workers said.
“Due to tough nature of our work, Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) is always a challenge for us to adhere to when conducting the clearance of vessels,” they added.
The workers highly recommend that an urgent action is needed to hasten the quarantine and isolation centres to be ready and on stand-by should any covid-19 case arises. They also requested adequate number of personal protection equipment (PPE).
More than 70 overseas vessels has been cleared for sufferance for the past two months at Noro port since declaration of the State of Public Emergency on 25th March.
The designated quarantine facility for Noro is the Soltuna Girls Hotel and Noro Lodge for the isolation unit. Both buildings has been assessed by government architects and awaits implementation for upgrading and repurposing.
Secretary to the Prime Minister, Dr. Jimmy Rodgers revealed at a recent talk back show that our bilateral partners, Australia and New Zealand, has committed funds to improve the health facilities in Honiara and the provinces, especially for the Western region.
Source: NDC