This week’s update includes an important announcement made by the Minister of Health Hon. Dr Culwick Togamana (02/08/2021) on mandatory vaccination.

Scroll down for more details.

 

Mandatory Vaccination

The Minister of Health today announced that the Cabinet at its sitting on Friday 30 July 2021 has approved the mandatory administration of COVID-19 vaccines for:

• all public servants and employees of the central and provincial governments and eligible members of their families,
• all staff of state-owned enterprises [SOEs] and other government institutions / subsidiaries and eligible members of their families
• employees of private companies undertaking work at the front-lines – such as shipping agents, airlines, stevedores, crews of fishing vessels and eligible members of their families.

Cabinet has agreed that persons coming under these three groups in the provinces where COVID-19 vaccination rollout had already commenced including Honiara, Western Province, Choiseul Province, Guadalcanal Province and Malaita Outer Islands must now receive their first doses of COVID-19 vaccination by 31st August 2021 and their second dose by 30 November 2021.

Any person covered under the above categories who chooses not to get their 1st dose of vaccination by 31st August, will not be allowed to access their place of employment, and any person in the three categories not fully vaccinated by 30th November 2021 will be taken as having chosen to self-terminate their employment.

The Cabinet also agreed that for provinces where vaccination rollout has not yet commenced, all employees under the above 3 categories will have 60 days [2 months] to get their first dose of vaccination and the last date to take their 2nd dose of vaccination will be 12 weeks from the date of the closing day for the 1st dose period.

Like those in Honiara, Western, Choiseul, Guadalcanal provinces and Malaita Outer Islands, any person under the above categories who chooses not to receive their first dose by the end of the period for taking the first dose, will not be allowed to access their workplaces, and if they still choose not to be vaccinated by the closing date of the 2nd dose period will be taken as having chosen to self-terminate their employment.

The Cabinet has also decided to set a national vaccination target to achieve 80% 1st dose vaccination coverage nationally by 30th November 2021, and an 80% 2nd dose vaccination coverage nationally by 28 February 2022.

 

Our COVID-19 situation

Since commencing its response to COVID-19 a year ago, Solomon Islands have registered 20 positive cases against our country, which we have successfully managed. The country has maintained a COVID-19 free status for over four months now.

Ex-positive cases

The 90 days follow up testing protocol for all ex-positives released to the communities remains an important mechanism to ensure swift detection of any reactivations that could possibly lead to the worst-case scenario of an uncontrollable community transmission.

The last two cases, index 19 have completed the 90 days follow up testing last month and index 20 expected to complete the follow up by next week.

 

Cargo flight/vessels

• The recent incident of MV Papa Mau that docked in Honiara on the 15th of July and later tested its crew on 25th July in Nauru when 13 of them were then reported to be positive is an example of risks and concern for COVID-19 entry and community transmission. We were fortunate enough that to date, all primary and secondary contacts have been tested negative for COVID-19, with further tests underway to fully rule out any COVID-19 threat. Nevertheless, with efforts to keep the economy afloat at this difficult time, we cannot simply isolate ourselves from the rest of the world.
  
  
• Over the weekend we have also picked up COVID-19 positive test results for 3 crew member of another foreign commercial vessel, MV Run Fu 6, that arrived over the weekend. All frontliners who boarded the vessels for swabbing were in their Personal Protective Equipment and also fully vaccinated.
  
  
• With the test results, the vessel was immediately put under quarantine with no unauthorized persons to board. Further testing is being conducted for these crews and depending on the results, the next course of action will be determined. 
  
  
• the Health Minister said while they we are controlling possible transmission by air, they are now focused on ensuring protocols dealing with vessels are sharpened to ensure they do not allow COVDI-19 infections to enter the country through our ports.
  
  
• This is the 4th Foreign Vessel we have picked up COVID-19 positive crew members when the vessel is in port and before it was cleared.
  
  
• As a result of the increasing incidence of finding COVID-19 positive crew members on foreign vessels, the Oversight Committee’s Vessel exemption committee will be tightening up requirements for foreign vessels to adhere to when travelling to Solomon Islands.
  
  
• The increase in numbers of crew members testing positive is a function of possibly previously infected people boarding vessels despite testing negative for CVID-19. In some cases, these people continue to release the virus for longer period as we have seen in cases across the World and in Solomon Islands too. Hence, we are picking up most of those cases in Solomon Islands. They are presumed to be negative but we do all the necessary investigations and take prudent action to prevent entry of the virus.

 

Vaccine Uptake

• Despite the continued push to increase our vaccination coverage since the March 2021 launch, to date only 47,921 doses of COVID-19 vaccines, AstraZeneca and Sinopharm, 1st and 2nd dose had been administered. Only 12,183 people had been fully vaccinated, with 1st and 2nd doses. This represents only 2.9 percent of the national target population of 414,327 people. Only 23, 555 people having received their first dose at this point.
  
  
• In Honiara and Guadalcanal province combined, 10, 000 plus people have completed their 2nd doses which translate to only 6.9 percent of the target population. For the Choiseul and Western Provinces, about 3.3 percent and 1.2 percent of target population respectively had received full vaccination. The 2nd dose roll out for Malaita Outer Islands was also conducted last week.