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A woman washes clothes on a wooden path between stilt houses at Hanuabada Village, located in Port Moresby Harbour, Papua New Guinea, November 19, 2018. REUTERS/David Gray/
Papua New Guinea on Thursday reported 11 new deaths linked to COVID-19, a larger than usual increase for the Pacific island nation, which may support concerns that an outbreak in recent months may overwhelm its fragile health system.
The additional deaths were logged in the 24 hours to midday Wednesday but occurred over the span of nearly a month prior, the PNG COVID-19 National Pandemic Response said in a statement, taking the country s coronavirus death toll to 82.
The Papua New Guinea government says it s distributing Covid-19 vaccine to the wider Highlands region, ahead of a nationwide rollout next week.
The country has been facing a surge of cases that has brought its health system to the brink.
PNG has now officially passed 100 deaths from Covid-19, with 10-thousand confirmed cases - though with low testing rates, the real figure is believed to be much higher.
The Controller of the PNG National Pandemic Response, David Manning, receives a shot of the Covid-19 vaccine produced by Astrazeneca.
Photo: PNG PM Media
The health department says supplies of the AstraZeneca vaccine brought in by the Covax programme, were deployed at the weekend.
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Papua New Guinea s parliament.
Photo: RNZI / Johnny Blades
The adjournment will allow Prime Minister James Marape to avoid a no confidence vote.
Earlier, the opposition had tabled a motion of no confidence against Marape.
The opposition listed the former Prime Minister Peter O Neill as its nominee for alternate prime minister.
However, PNG s constitution doesn t allow confidence votes against a sitting prime minister in the twelve months before an election. The country is due to go to the polls in July next year.
The opposition is expected to challenge the adjournment in court, with O Neill alleging it was in breach of rules around parliament s minimum number of sitting days.