Friday, 22 May 2020
REPUBLIC OF NAURU
Government Information Office
CORONAVIRUS UPDATE
by
His Excellency President Lionel
Aingimea
Friday, 22 May 2020
In today's end of the week situational update, His Excellency
President Lionel Aingimea says Nauru remains coronavirus free.
The President reiterates that the individual named Jaxon Olsson,
who participated in a drill last week, does not have coronavirus.
Jaxon volunteered to assist the Coronavirus Taskforce and the Nauru
Police Force in the drill as the main actor. The drill took place
in Ijuw on Thursday 14May. The President once again thanks Jaxon
for his role in assisting with the drill.
In quarantine, there are 30 people at the Meneñ hotel, including
five airline crew and 23 at Canstruct's Anibare Village.
Globally, confirmed cases of coronavirus is close to five
million while deaths have now surpassed 325,000.
"Let's remember there are a lot of countries doing it tough.
Let's keep them in our prayers, keep our country in prayers. God
bless Nauru and God bless us all," President Aingimea said.
The GeneXpert machine at the Republic of Nauru Hospital used to
test for coronavirus has completed its validation process and is
now operational with lab staff having satisfactorily completed
testing with 100 per cent match on samples this week.
President Aingimea said the taking of samples is an invasive
procedure requiring swabbing through the nose, so it is important
that samples are collected correctly. A doctor will be collecting
the samples.
Meanwhile, the Elite Genius machine will commence its validation
process today, and once completed, Nauru will have two machines to
run coronavirus tests simultaneously.
The Neptune cargo vessel Capitaine Quiros arrived yesterday and
testing on all its crew members returned negative for SARS-CoV 2
(the virus that causes COVID-19 or coronavirus disease). The crew
are the first arrivals to be tested using the GeneXpert
machine.
Dressed in personal protective equipment (PPE), Nauru health
officials and a member of the Taskforce boarded the ship to take
samples from the crew.
The Port Authority of Nauru has been notified of the crew's
negative test results and will commence unloading of the ship from
7am tomorrow, Saturday 23 May.
In other border movements, President Aingimea says the island
still needs freighters to bring in supplies which the Government
will continue to assist with.
Local businesses have put in big orders to refill their supply
to ensure there is ample stock including for bakeries that cater
for children's breakfast essentials.
Port construction company, CHEC, had its raft arrive over the
weekend to bring in materials and equipment for the port
development. It will continue to bring in more materials in the
future; while the tug boat from Honiara also arrived to assist with
the fuel ship.
Any crew needing to disembark will undergo testing for
coronavirus.
President Aingimea once again thanks donors for their continued
support and understanding of Nauru's needs during COVID-19. New
donations include regulators for the oxygen machine from an
individual in Brisbane, Australia; and Ireland has come in as a new
donor for Nauru. The Department of Finance and the Taskforce are
working on an order to submit to Ireland.
The Government is sincerely grateful to its donors and partners
for always being there in Nauru's time of need.
The Nauru Police Force has had to lay off five reserves for
absenteeism, bringing the total number of reserves to 25. The NPF
is looking to replace the five. Any member of the public interested
to be a police reserve is asked to call in to Police Headquarters
in Yaren.
The work of the police is vital as law enforcers and protectors
of the community and in this time of coronavirus, police reserves
play an important role in supporting our NPF.
ENDS///
Issued by:
Nauru Government Information Office,
Republic of NAURU
Ph: +(674) 557 3009 E: gio.nauru@gmail.com / naurugovinfo@gmail.com / www.naurugov.nr