Papua New Guinea poses ‘concerning risk’ to Australia as Qld cases soar

Annastacia Palaszczuk says she is ‘deeply concerned’ about the COVID situation in a neighbouring country and has called on the federal government to ensure Australia’s safety.

Australia’s closest neighbour is experiencing an “alarming” rate of COVID-19 infections, prompting one premier to call on the federal government to do more to keep Australia safe.

Annastacia Palaszczuk said she was “deeply concerned” about the coronavirus situation in Papua New Guinea after Queensland ramped up its assistance with the neighbouring country’s testing regimen.

Of 500 PNG tests the state had carried out recently, 250 had come back positive she said on Monday.

“We have been assisting with some tests in Papua New Guinea, and out of the 500 tests that the health authorities have done for PNG, 250 came back positive,” she said.

“This is a real concern … Papua New Guinea is on the doorstop of Queensland, and I hope that I will be able to speak to the Prime Minister in the next 24 hours to talk about our concerns there, have a look at the flights coming in.

“Given our close proximity to PNG, it is something we need to be very serious about. We know there are a lot of Queenslanders who work or live in PNG, so we are very concerned at the moment.”

Queensland recorded six new cases of COVID-19 on Monday, two of which had been acquired in Papua New Guinea.

Charter flights were suspended from the Ok Tedi Mine after an alarming spike in COVID-19 cases.

 Charter flights returning to Queensland from the Ok Tedi Mine have already been suspended, but Ms Palaszczuk said she would seek confirmation from the Prime Minister that that would continue.

Queensland last week began rolling out its vaccine program in the Torres Strait given the close proximity of some of the islands to the neighbouring country.

Australia, along with the United States, Japan and India have given out millions of dollars to support health efforts in PNG and other Pacific countries.

“I think we need to look at what is our co-ordinated response,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

“I think there is an issue for the federal government. I understand that they are providing some assistance into Papua New Guinea, but maybe we need to look at a vaccine rollout program there as well.”

As of Monday, PNG had reported 1819 total COVID-19 cases and 21 deaths, but testing rates are low. Only 55,000 tests have been reported from the estimated nine million people who live in the country.