Te Marae Ora Ministry of Health reassures people they are ready to handle a Covid-19 outbreak after a New Zealand-based medical expert said the country would not be able to handle the virus.

Ministry of Health “is as ready as it can be” to deal with any likely outbreak of Covid-19 in the Cook Islands.

The ministry made these comments in response to concerns raised by Dr George Ngaei​, who said the country would not be able to handle the Delta variant.

Speaking to Stuff on Wednesday, Cook Islander Dr Ngaei, who is a surgeon and currently in Rarotonga, holidaying with his wife Bobi, said: “If we get a full epidemic here (Cook Islands), even though the people are vaccinated, there’s still going to be some illnesses.”

The chairman of the Pacific Islands Advisory Charitable Trust​ said some people would require hospital care and others intensive care.

“And we don’t have the beds here or the resources to look after people fully in intensive care units, beyond one or two people.”

Te Marae Ora said there was a 10-bed isolation ward with negative pressure at the hospital to receive Covid-19 patients needing respiratory support.

The hospital has four ventilators and other life support equipment available. There are also supplies of personal protection equipment (PPE) for staff, it said.

Secretary of Health Bob Williams said: “Considerable thought and work has gone into getting our services and people as ready as we can be, within the scope of our resources.”
However, Ngaei said he was impressed with the Cook Islands’ Covid-19 testing.  “It was very impressive the way the health officials here organised it and did the tests.”

Four testing locations were again operating on Rarotonga and one on Aitutaki yesterday, between 7am and 4pm.

As at 5pm yesterday, a total of 1578 people were swabbed, including 144 swabs from Aitutaki. The results from the first 1248 swabs have all been negative.

In line with New Zealand extending the dates around Locations of Interest (2-16 August CKT) following 31 community cases (as of 4pm yesterday), any passengers who arrived in the Cook Islands between 2-16 August 2021 and who are symptomatic or had visited a Location of Interest before travelling to the Cook Islands are asked to self-isolate and to contact Te Marae Ora Contact Tracing Lines as soon as possible. These numbers are: 57481, 57482, 57486, 56199 – and 29 664 and 29 110 extension 717.

Williams said it is everybody’s job to keep communities safe.

“We all have a part to play; the public, community leaders, the Aronga Mana and Religious Advisory Council, the Puna, Pa Enua, the business sector and the government.”

Williams acknowledged his staff for the extra effort they have put into their roles this week, along with the Cook Islands Red Cross, the Bankers Association and all the people who have rallied to help out.

“People should still remain vigilant. Remember Covid-19 is still stalking the planet exploiting weak and ill-prepared health systems and causing sickness and death. It is far from being defeated yet.”

Meanwhile two Air New Zealand flights that arrived yesterday afternoon were not carrying passengers, as required under Alert Level 2 which remains in place until 11.59pm on Monday, August 23.

The flight that departed at 3.55pm left with 167 passengers and the second flight was expected to have approximately 127 passengers.

A Ministerial order is in place that requires flights to the Pa Enua to be cargo only flights, with returning flights able to transport passengers and cargo to Rarotonga.

• Additional reporting by Uma Ahmed of Stuff