Employers required by law to ensure safe work environment for workers, says Governor

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Employers required by law to ensure safe work environment for workers, says Governor

PORT MORESBY: National Capital District Governor Powes Parkop says employers are required by law to provide their workers a safe work environment – thus the need for employees to get the Coronavirus (Covid-19) jab, or be tested negative daily.

Parkop explained this yesterday (Nov 1, 2021) as a small group of people organised a march in Port Moresbyu opposing the “no jab, no job” stance enforced by employers in the public and private sectors.

PNG Cyber Monitor reproduces below a few news reports on the Coronavirus (Covid-19)  status in Papua New Guinea as reported by The National:

 

 

It’s legal: No jab, no job

November 2, 2021The NationalMain Stories

 Parkop

By LORRAINE JIMAL
EMPLOYERS are required by law to provide their workers a safe work environment – thus the need for employees to get the Coronavirus (Covid-19) jab, or be tested negative daily, an official says.
A similar small protest was staged in Lae on Friday.
“We (employers) are legally required to create a safe working environment for employees,” Parkop said.
“In the private and government sectors, they are telling their workers to get vaccinated, otherwise get tested every day (to ensure that they have a negative result) before going inside their work place.”
The National Capital District Commission (NCDC) started the ball rolling last month by enforcing the ‘no jab, no job’ policy, requiring all employees to be vaccinated by Nov 1 (yesterday), or be taken off the payroll.
Parkop said they were just following Occupational Health and Safety Act requirements which “seeks to protect the health, safety and welfare of employees and other people at work. It also aims to ensure that the health and safety of the public is not put at risk by work activities”.
Many employers in the public and private sectors have made vaccination mandatory to keep their employees and organisation safe from the Covid-19.
Parkop stressed that the Government had never made vaccination mandatory, but then employers had to ensure the safety of their employees and their families.
“If you want to get the vaccine, that’s up to you,” he said.
“We never said everyone must get vaccinated.” But then anyone who wants to visit City Hall must get tested and would only be allowed in if the result is negative.
Parkop said the measure applied to NCDC employees.
“The employees from the commission will be here every day and the best way to make sure they protect each other is through the vaccine,” he said.
“I want to make this clear.”
He said if the National Capital District Commission was forced to shut down, many people and businesses would be affected.
Therefore, he said measures were in place for the employees to make sure city hall remains open.

Cops halt anti-jab protest

November 2, 2021The NationalMain Stories

By MIRIAM ZARRIGA
POLICE intervened to stop a group of people from marching to Parliament yesterday in protest over the enforcement by some employers of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccination and the ‘no jab, no job’ policy.
Despite the assurances by National Pandemic Response Controller David Manning that the Covid-19 vaccination was not compulsory, the group still organised the march yesterday morning.
National Capital District police led by Assistant Police Commissioner Anthony Wagambie Jnr blocked their march at Woodcock Road, Dunlin Crescent, Plover Street, and Snipe Street.
The people were told to go instead to Unagi Oval in the opposite direction.
ACP Wagambie told the group that while their cries had been heard, he would not allow them to go to Parliament as the march was illegal.
He told them that the police were there “not to suppress their rights”.
“Our concern is public safety and order,” he said.
“The people listened and took it well, with the organisers deciding not to go to Parliament but to withdraw to Unagi.”
The protestors gathered at Unagi for 30 minutes then left.
There was no social distancing nor wearing of face masks.
Manning said many people were still relying on misinformation.
“While we continue to express that vaccinations was voluntary, there are people out there spewing fake information and using social media to spread lies and fear,” he said.
“We have continued to maintain that vaccination is voluntary and will remain so. No one is being forced to be vaccinated.”
The protestors carrying placards wanted the Government to stop the vaccination programmes around the country.
Manning, also the police commissioner, said it was clear that misinformation about the Covid-19 outweighed genuine information available to the average citizen.
ACP Wagambie said police were ready to block the march sending various units to guard different parts of the city so no opportunists took advantage of the situation.

Restrictions to continue

November 2, 2021The NationalMain Stories

By ZACHERY PER
EXTENSION to restrictions will continue in Eastern Highlands for another two weeks but with stricter controls over the movements of people from districts.
The curfew hours will remain between 2pm and 7am but tougher conditions will apply to people from the districts travelling into Goroka and Kainantu towns.
Eastern Highlands Coronavirus (Covid-19) controller and administrator John Gimisive confirmed the lockdown extension last week following no reduction in Covid-19 infections and deaths.
He said as more new cases were coming from the districts, two more weeks would be used to determine the severity in the eight districts of the province.
“There will be strict controls in the inter-district travels into Goroka and Kainantu towns, no Public Motor Vehicles will be moving back and forth in and out of the towns, only essential services providers such as health and police will be allowed,” Gimisive said.
Eastern Highlands health authority chief executive officer Dr Joseph Apa said there should be ample time for more awareness and vaccinations.
Dr Apa said local level government (LLG) presidents and community leaders would be engaged as the pandemic had reached communities.
“Cases recorded last month were 797 and in September there were 746,’’ he said.
The total deaths recorded was 146, tallies from Goroka and Kainantu hospitals, but those died in the villages were left unaccounted for.
“The situation had not improved after an extended two weeks lockdown, therefore, the provincial controller has extended a further two-week lockdown, this time the focus is on the districts,” he said.
Dr Apa said the lockdown would continue until they saw a decline in the cases and deaths.
Meanwhile, provincial police commander Supt Michael Welly said the added lockdown would be beefed up by members of the Correctional Services and PNG Defence Force.
He appealed to travellers and other Highlands Highway users to cooperate with the police and health officers at check-points at Kenagi and Kassam Pass borders between Chimbu and Morobe.
The first day of the extended lockdown in Goroka town saw business as usual between 8am and 2pm.
The people went off the streets, shops, markets and common places before 2pm.

ENB urges presidents, members to implement strategies

November 2, 2021The NationalMain Stories

By ROSELYN ELLISON
WARD members, local level government (LLG) presidents and ward development committee (WDC) members in East New Britain (ENB) have been urged to implement the Coronavirus (Covid-19) containment strategies as well as a 14-day lockdown extension which ends on Nov 14.
Provincial administrator and controller Wilson Matava said all wards in the province needed to enforce the following protocols and measures, which include:

• NO unnecessary movements from house to house;
• ALL people moving outside their family area/households wear a mask within the ward;
• NO sports competitions and gatherings;
• ONLY normal church gatherings will be allowed. No combined church gatherings, crusades, camps or outreaches will be allowed;
• NO traditional or culture gatherings;
• FUNERAL arrangements/burials will be allowed for 20 people only;
• BURIALS for all Covid-19 deaths must be done within 24 hours;
• COMMUNITY-based home isolation protocols must be adhered to;
• ALL people in a moving vehicles, private or public motor vehicles (PMV), must wear a mask;
• ALL citizens must carry own hand sanitisers everywhere;
• ALL stores in the wards will be open from 7am to 5pm requiring shoppers to mask up and hand sanitise;
• CURFEW hours will be observed from 6pm to 5am daily for the duration of the lockdown; and,
• A BAN on alcohol consumption within the ward area to comply with lockdown measures.

Matava said non-compliance would be dealt with through fines.
He encouraged people to eat healthy food and have regular exercise as a means to ensure good health.
“Any person caught not complying with the ward protocols will be fined under the National Pandemic Act 2020,” he said.
Matava said containment strategies were to manage and control the surge to ensure that people were properly educated and could manage their own communities in future.
He added that throughout PNG, the morbidity and mortality rates continued to rise and the lives of people in ENB were at risk.
“We have seen an increase in the number of bodies at the Nonga Hospital mortuary from May to September and this is consistent with the current surge the country is facing,” he said.

Covid-19 emergencies rising: St John

November 2, 2021The NationalNational

THE St John Ambulance attended to 69 Coronavirus (Covid-19) emergency cases around the country on Sunday, according to chief executive officer Matt Cannon.
They attended to the same number on Wednesday last week – the highest number of cases the ambulance service had ever responded to in a 24-hour period for at least the past five years.
On Sunday, there were 44 emergency cases in the National Capital District of which 15 were Covid-19-related.
Central/Gulf had five emergency cases of which two were Covid-19.
Lae had four cases of which one was Covid-19.
Kokopo had eight emergency cases and Kundiawa had eight of which four were Covid-19.
Cannon said there were 54 Covid-19 patients admitted at the Nightingale Covid-19 centre and the Taurama Aquatic Centre of which 24 were moderate and on oxygen and 30 were mild cases. Yesterday, he said there were 48 patients at TAC of which 22 were moderate and on oxygen and 26 were mild.
Yesterday, he said the ambulance attended to 53 emergency cases.
NCD had 39 of which 17 were Covid-19.
Central/Gulf had four of which two were Covid-19.
Lae recorded two emergencies – all of it were Covid-19.

Hoax deaths worrying families

November 2, 2021The NationalNational

AS the Coronavirus (Covid-19) and its Delta variant takes a firm grip of Eastern Highlands, with infection numbers increasing steadily and deaths filling up mortuaries, some groups of people have turned nasty by hoaxing deaths of some prominent people in the province.
They are bringing people like businessman and community leader Apaso Winchlee Oibotee and former governor Julie Soso and their families unnecessary shocks and heartaches by informing the public that they had died.
Some of Oibotee’s family and relatives, according to practice, had chopped off their finger as part of mourning, he said.
At this time of the Covid-19, people are gullible and deaths are easily believed, he said.
Both, Soso via radio and Oibotee, said they were alive and well and in Oibotee’s case, he was “kicking and not kicked the bucket”.
“It’s just rumours by thoughtless people,” he said.
“There were many stories on the streets of Goroka town, my village in Unggai-Bena, Eastern Highlands, and PNG, even on social media that I was dead – all lies,” he told a media conference in Goroka yesterday.
Oibotee said there were rumours that he had died of HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) or the Covid-19 and his children had hidden and buried him.
“I had high blood pressure, admitted to Goroka Hospital and cleared of any medical complications,” he said.
“I paid the airfares for my doctor and we went to Sir Buri Kidu Heart Foundation in Port Moresby.”

Delivery of oxygen plant brings new hope to infected patients

November 2, 2021The NationalNational

THE Goroka General Hospital in Eastern Highlands will now have a steady supply of oxygen for patients after K92 Mining Ltd delivered a modular medical oxygen plant to the hospital yesterday.
K92 Mining, the operator of the Kainantu mine, said in a statement that the oxygen plant generated about 20 litres per minute at a purity of 92 to 96 per cent that met world health standards and could be filled in a wide range of cylinders. It said this was expected to considerably bolster the hospital’s capabilities to provide care for severe Coronavirus patients.
The oxygen plant was delivered by a team led by K92’s community development officer Ovex Jamaika, who presented the unit to the chief executive officer (CEO) of the Eastern Highlands health authority Dr Joeseph Apa. K92 Mining CEO John Lewins said the purchasing of the plant from Australia and delivering it so quickly was an extremely high priority.