NATIONAL ADDRESS Acting President, HE Hon Isabella Dageago, MP 17 June 2022
NATIONAL ADDRESS
Acting President, HE Hon Isabella
Dageago, MP
17 June 2022
The National COVID-19 Taskforce has
this afternoon advised myself as Acting President, the Cabinet, as
well as His Excellency the President who has been in meetings in
Canberra, that cases of COVID-19 have been detected in our
community today, Friday 17 June.
This is something that we have
known would happen at some stage and that we have been prepare
for.
The Taskforce advises that we
should expect more cases to be identified in the coming days and we
should all expect that COVID will spread through the community.
In the meantime, the Taskforce
recommends we implement short term measures to slow the spread of
the virus for the next few weeks.
The temporary measures we are
putting in place for the next two weeks include the following:
- Everyone
to remain at home unless you need to go to essential work, buy food
or supplies or get medical treatment or for other
emergencies.
In short, if you don't need to go out, we ask you to stay at
home.
- Do
what you can to limit your movements and limit your contact with
other people outside your home. Keep a physical distance from other
people where possible.
- Everyone
to wear a mask when you leave home and expect to have contact with
other people.
- Government,
corporations, instrumentalities and private businesses are asked to
suspend any non-essential activities and services, reduce working
hours where possible or put in place work-from-home arrangements if
possible.
This means things such as bars,
grog bars, bingo, betting, social activities, sports and the like
are to be suspended.
- School
holidays will commence immediately for four weeks.
Children are asked to stay at home at all times.
- Church
services are to be suspended.
- Weddings,
birthdays, celebrations and any gatherings of people outside your
immediate household are to be postponed.
There is no need to panic and no
need to rush out and stock up on food and other goods.
You can still go out and buy food
and essential supplies as you need.
The island is well stocked with
food and supplies. The Micronesian Pride has been coming regularly
and is due back with more supplies in a few days and cargo will be
unloaded as usual. The air freight service will continue to come
each week.
Nauru has been blessed in that
we have not had this happen until now, after two and a half years,
and we have had time to get vaccinated and build our
protection.
But it is equally important for
everyone to understand what the government is doing in response to
the transmission, and it is critical that everyone knows there is
no need to be alarmed.
Nauru has a very high level of
protection from our vaccination coverage and slowing down the
initial spread in the next two weeks will give all of us time to
understand what this means and what to expect.
Slowing the spread will ensure we
can care for everyone that needs medical treatment and that we can
look after the more vulnerable people in our community.
Your Government is asking all of
you to do your part by limiting your movements, stay at home as
much as possible, and not have unnecessary contact with other
people.
If we can do this, we can slow the
initial spread over the first few weeks and we can all help make
sure the vulnerable people in our community are cared for and can
be managed.
We may need to do these things for
more than two weeks, but if we all do our part, we will be able to
lift these measures and return to normal activities as soon as
possible.
We are well protected because
of our excellent COVID-19 vaccination coverage.
But after being so successful in
keeping our community protected from COVID-19 for the last two and
half years, we should not be careless and let COVID run
uncontrolled.
Just as we have been smart in how
we have managed this pandemic from the beginning, we need to be
smart about how we change from zero COVID in our community to
learning how we can live with COVID.
We need to make a few sacrifices
now, and only for a short time, so we can make this transition
easier and make sure we can all manage this change to living with
COVID.
More information and details will
continue to be provided but for now, it is important to get this
initial information to you, so everyone is aware and can be
reassured.
Mwa tubwa kor.
God Bless Nauru.