Tuesday, 12 May 2020
REPUBLIC
OF NAURU
Government
Information Office
CORONAVIRUS UPDATE
by
His
Excellency President Lionel Aingimea
Tuesday,
12 May 2020
While Nauru remains coronavirus free,
President Lionel Aingimea continues to remind the public to be
mindful that coronavirus can infect anyone, and everyone is
susceptible.
The President urges everyone to
exercise caution especially frontline workers such as health staff,
customs and immigration to "please use caution at all
times."
The residents still at Meneñ Hotel and
Canstruct's Anibare Village are well and due to complete their 14
days quarantine at the end of this week. Their samples are being
tested and their results determined in the coming days.
President Aingimea also reiterated
that the five crew members from the freighter flight over the
weekend did not disembark the plane however having returned a
positive rapid test from one crew member, the plane, crew and cargo
were promptly directed back to Brisbane and all their samples are
being tested in Australia. The Nauru Government is waiting for the
official results of those tests.
Despite the success in keeping
coronavirus out of Nauru, the Government continues to prepare with
work being done at the hospital and other national response
systems.
The President said we do not want to
encounter this virus on our shores and be hit in a sense that will
affect us significantly, advising that we are "better prepared than
not."
As the last couple weeks have been
quiet in terms of incidences at the quarantine residences,
President Aingimea said lessons were learnt from past incidences
and we better understand what to do in certain circumstances. Since
the security breaches at both quarantine sites, regulations have
been put in place, security escalated and dialogue with those to
enter quarantine, streamlined.
The Coronavirus Taskforce will be
reaching out to the communities to establish community committees.
This involves formalising membership by volunteers as
representatives of their communities, which will create the link to
the Taskforce and government.
The President said in this regard,
there will also be a prepared drill to take place on Thursday,
14May in Ijuw.
Please note this is a test and not a
real event.
The practice scenario involves a
breach in security at the Meneñ hotel by a person in quarantine who
has coronavirus, and is running randomly into the nearby community,
for example - Ijuw.
The drill will involve the police,
CLOs, and health to go in and control an area, identify, capture
and contain the person, and whoever he might have been in contact
with, and cordon off the area including locking down the district
if needed.
The aim of the response plan is to
prevent and reduce the widespread transmission of coronavirus in
the community and minimise its impact in Nauru.
This will also test the communications
systems, which will involve the government, CLOs, community, the
Government Information Office (GIO), Nauru media, and Digicel. It
will test how agencies move and respond and identify what actions
are needed to take place to ensure that community are alerted and
remain safe.
Again, this is a test and not a real
event. A blind drill is planned for the next phase.
There have been recent reports of used
personal protective equipment (PPE) such as face masks and gloves
left lying around in public.
The President stresses the need to
properly dispose of used PPE, or else face fines.
The National Disaster Risk Management
(COVID19) Community Transmission and Public Health Regulations
provide for the disposal of used PPE in closed containers or bags
and destroyed by incineration. Any person authorised to use PPE
should not share, reuse or preserve any used PPE or dispose of any
used PPE other than incineration.
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