The country has recorded an additional 604 positive tests for COVID-19 in the past 48 hours, bringing the total cumulative number of positive COVID-19 tests to 14,786.
Dr. Togamana gave the update during his COVID-19 situation update on the national broadcaster, SIBC.
He says that his Ministry will confirm the number of confirmed cases since some people have had to be tested on both the rapid test and the PCR, which may raise the registered positive cases artificially.
“As the situation settles down, our health teams will have more time to clean our database of COVID-19 positive cases. The number of cases will be less as some people have been tested twice,” the Health Minister explained.
Of the cases recorded, 358 of these new cases are detected in Honiara alone and 1,866 positive tests have been registered in the 2nd wave since April 13th, 2022.
He says on a more positive note the National Referral Hospital COVID-19 ward has started to record a decline in the number of patients admitted for COVID-19, from 22 patients on Sunday, 17 patients on Monday and 14 patients as of yesterday.
He says positive COVID-19 cases across other wards in the hospital are also showing some reduction.
“Over the weekend there were 87 patients who tested positive. This has now reduced to 54 as many also returned to negative,” Togamana said.
The Central Field Hospital that was put on standby to accommodate surge in patients currently remains empty with zero patients.
Meanwhile one COVID-19 related death has been recorded at NRH bringing the country’s total death count to 141.
With SIBC