PNG bans Chinese workers and demands COVID-19 vaccine answers

PNG acts swiftly over claims by a Chinese miner that 48 of its employees were immunised against COVID-19.

Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape. Picture: AAP

Papua New Guinea blocked the arrival of a planeload of Chinese workers and demanded answers from Beijing’s top diplomat in the country over an “unauthorised” vaccination program involving Chinese state-owned enterprise employees.

PNG’s pandemic controller David Manning issued a new order on Thursday banning unapproved vaccination trials in the country after The Australian revealed a claim by a Chinese miner that 48 of its employees were immunised against the coronavirus.

Mr Manning said he had turned around a flight carrying 180 Chinese workers after learning that China’s state-owned Ramu Nickel was using its PNG-posted employees as guinea pigs to test a potential COVID-19 vaccine.

“The government of PNG demands and deserves to fully understand (the) vaccine development and SARS-COV-2 vaccine immunisation program undertaken in China and its potential risks prior to any further approval being given for Chinese travel requests,” he said in a diplomatic note to Chinese ambassador Xue Bing.

The crackdown came a day after Scott Morrison vowed to help Australia’s “Pacific family” and key Southeast Asian partners gain access to a successful coronavirus vaccine.

There have been 361 COVID-19 cases in PNG and four deaths.

Mr Manning asked Mr Xue why local officials were not informed of the claimed immunisation status of the Ramu Nickel workers prior to their arrival in PNG.

He demanded China provide “care management protocols” for the workers if they required hospitalisation, called for evidence they had consented to receive the trial vaccine, and asked for proof the vaccine trial had received internal ethics committee approval.

“Until the Chinese government, through the Chinese embassy in Port Moresby, provides that information, I will be best guided by our health and medical experts … when considering the applications of Chinese nationals who have been subjected to this Chinese vaccination trial entering into the country,” he said.

The Chinese government has given the green light for two ­potential vaccines to be trialled by state-owned firms with employees overseas, and another to be trialled by the nation’s military.

The rejected flight was carrying workers from China’s largest state-owned companies — including China Railway Inter­national, the China Harbour Engineering Group, Shenzhen Energy and the Dongfang Electric Group.

While PNG reacted angrily to the trial, which is believed to have included only Chinese workers, Indonesia has given the green light for its citizens to test a corona­virus vaccine being rushed to development in partnership with China’s Sinovac Biotech.

About 1600 Indonesian volunteers are set to join the trial, which is one of only a handful of large-scale clinical tests of a COVID-19 vaccine on humans.

Sinovac is reportedly proceeding with similar trials in Brazil, Turkey, Bangladesh and Chile, with the firm saying it needed volunteers outside China to test the vaccine because of suppression of the virus in the country.

Indonesia has been hit hard by the coronavirus, with more than 127,000 confirmed infections and 5700 deaths so far.

The Prime Minister on Wednesday said he had already spoken to PNG Prime Minister James Marape, Fiji Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama and Indonesian President Joko Widodo about rolling out a vaccine ­regionally when one was ­approved for widespread use.

“We have a regional role to play here as well as a domestic role … and we will be living up to all of those responsibilities as we progress this day,” he said.

“And look, to be honest, in the Pacific that’s expected.”

Mr Morrison said the rest of the world looked towards Aus­tralia to provide that support in the region.