St John Ambulance responded to 69 emergency calls on Friday, October, 29th 2021 from all across PNG.  “This is the highest number of cases we have ever responded to in a 24-hour period in at least 5 years.” “60% of all emergencies that St John Ambulance responded to yesterday were for confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases.” “We express great concern with the surging cases in Kundiawa and Central Province,” said CEO of St Johns Ambulance, Matt Cannon. Cannon said that the St John ambulances usually retrieved 3 to 4 patients daily from Central Province, usually for serious emergencies like trauma, snakebite and childbirth. He said that they have seen an increase in the number of emergency cases with the ambulances doing multiple trips to Kuriva, Kwikila and travelling hours into the Central Province to retrieve patients from rural health centres and bringing them to Port Moresby for urgent care. Cannon added that they have reached out to Governor of Central Province to see how the Provincial Government can support by putting on more ambulances just for Central alone. “The Central Province supports one St John ambulance at the moment, but at least three more are needed during this significant surge.” “We have assured the good governor that if the Provincial Government can support more, we can provide extra basic trained staff for these ambulances, quickly,” Cannon said. To keep up with surging demand for ambulance resources, St John Ambulance has taken the following steps: Starting another class of 16 reservist ambulance drivers. They will be finishing basic training on Monday and will start on the roster on Tuesday. With support from NCDC, they will roster an additional 3 ambulances per day in NCD on a temporary basis from Tuesday onwards. With the current trajectory of cases, there will be a need for many more ambulances on the road. Preparation to mobilise an emergency support team to help the ambulance staff in Kundiawa so they can do 24hr coverage. Ensuring a registered nurse is on-hand in the 111 ambulance control centres to help coordinate responses, re-triage cases, and provide clinical support. Cannon further added that they have Australian volunteer medical doctors, nurses and paramedics ready to assist in PNG at the Taurama Aquatic Centre and supporting with more ambulances. The staff are waiting normal visa and medical board approvals before they can travel to PNG.

People in Lae took to the streets of Eriku on Friday morning to protest against the Covid-19 Measures in the province such as the “No Jab No Job” policy being implemented by certain companies and the mandatory wearing of masks. The protest was an illegal one as the police were not notified and no permission was given for this protest. “We had heard about the protest so we had our men set up in different locations leading into town so we could control the crowd,” said Lae Metropolitan Suprintendent Commander, Chief Suprintendent Chris Kunyanban. Met Sup Kunyanban said that the crowds mobilised at the shopping centre at Eriku and tried to march up to town but the police had stopped them and spoke to them to call off the protest. The crowd however was a little rowdy, resulting in a police vehicle being stoned and 2 other public vehicles also receiving minor damages from stones thrown by people in the crowd. Chief Suprintendent Kunyanban said that they managed to get the crowd under control and send them home by midday. He added that neither the police nor the crowd protesting received any injuries or any collateral damage to the business houses and shops from Eriku to Town as well as the market area. Met Sup Kunyanban further added that there are proper procedures that the people must follow if they want to stage a protest. “They must write to the police seeking permission so the police can make sure that their protest marches go smoothly and peacefully.” He said that if they cannot give approval for a particular protest march, then they can find other avenues to help them air their grievances and views.

There are no new measures being released as yet after the 11 measures that were released by the Controller which came into effect on September 30th, 2021. One of the measures introduced included the banning of large gatherings whereby an allowance was made for gatherings of not more than 20 persons at any one time. This measure as well as the others were to be reviewed after the 30th October 2021. “We have reviewed the measures and new measures have been submitted to our lawyers to approve.” “Once approved, we will submit to the National Control Centre to be announced to the public,” said Deputy Controller, Dr Daoni Esorom. Dr Daoni added that the measures released as of the 30th of September will remain in place until the new measures are announced next week. The Deputy Controller further urged the public to keep following the Niupla Pasin while awaiting on the announcement.

Elon Musk is rapidly approaching a net worth of $300 billion, as Tesla's market cap soars past $1 trillion. That's enough to surpass one of his biggest rivals: ExxonMobil. As of Monday's close, Musk's net worth was $289 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which surpasses the $272 billion market value of ExxonMobil (XOM), the company most associated with the fossil fuel industry he's seeking to destroy. Speaking of rivals: Musk is also worth more than fellow mega-billionaires Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg combined. The Tesla CEO's jump in worth can be attributed to two things after shares of Tesla rose more than 12% Monday: Hertz (HTZ) announced a record order of 100,000 Teslas for its fleet, and influential Morgan Stanley auto analyst Adam Jonas recently raised his price target on Tesla to $1,200 a share. That hefty one-day gain put Tesla (TSLA) just over the $1 trillion mark. Musk is a leading advocate of switching drivers around the world from gas and diesel to electric vehicles, potentially endangering Exxon's long-term future. America's largest oil company has been sharply criticized for its climate strategy and two of its board seats went to a climate activist hedge fund. For Tesla, by contrast, Wall Street's excitement about the future of electric vehicles has pushed the company's market value to more than the 11 largest global automakers combined. Tesla is worth more than three times as much as Toyota (TM), the second most valuable automaker, which has a market cap of about $280 billion, and boasts sales and profits that dwarf those of Tesla. Musk briefly eclipsed ExxonMobil's value once before, in early 2021. Exxon's stock is up nearly 60% this year as oil prices have climbed. SOURCE: CNN BUSINESS

DEPUTY Controller of the National Pandemic Response Dr Daoni Esorom has urged the health authorities not to neglect the routine health programs over COVID-19. Dr Daoni said, “My message is for the National Department of Health and the Provincial Health Authorities. We know there are surges in most provinces and the natural reaction is to redirect resources, including manpower to take care of the COVID-19 cases. “My concern is that PHAs must ensure that priority is given also to priority programs like the malaria program, Maternal Child Health, Expanded Programme for Immunisation (EPI), Tuberculosis, HIV and Non-Communicable Diseases. “We are seeing a trend that there is an increasing number of people dying from other diseases other than COVID-19. So the PHAs, hospitals and health facilities as well as the health workers must ensure that focus is also given to priority programs because if we don’t, we will have a lot of deaths not only from COVID-19 but other preventable diseases.’’ Dr Daoni said resources, including funding must also be shared equally between the COVID-19 program and the routine programs. He said the pandemic presents to us the opportunity to strengthen the basics of a healthy system. Now that the focus is on the pandemic emergency, the National Department of Health and PHAs must focus on the basic blocks of a health system. These are: • Governance, leadership and management; • Service delivery; • Health infrastructure; • Health financing; • Health information; and • Health workforce. “If we focus equally on building these basic blocks of our health system, we will emerge from the pandemic having a better health system,’’ said Dr Daoni.

poro is now a legally registered trademark of ncsl. A Certificate of Registration was issued by the Intellectual Property Office of Papua New Guinea in August this year. ncsl Paralegal Officer Ms. Rose Manjanaik said the registration prevents unauthorized use of the word mark poro by other entities or individuals. “Having the word mark poro registered prevents trademark breach by any entity or individual. ncsl has exclusive rights to the word mark poro and will claim relief in the event of an infringement,” she said. Team Leader Marketing and Client Relations, Ms. Evelove Farapo said it’s a boost for Marketing as a stakeholder and service providers can easily relate the registered trademark to the ncsl brand which can be used exclusively to run promotional campaigns. The registration of the poro trademark is for a period of ten years (10) from September 7, 2021 to 7 September 2031.

Chief of Papua New Guinea Defence Force, Major General Gilbert Toropo has come out public to correct false and misleading information spreading on social media regarding the alleged locking of Papua New Guinea Defence Force armouries by Australian Defence personnel. People must check with the PNGDF before spreading false and unfounded information creating panic when commenting on issues of National Security. Major General Gilbert Toropo said this when responding to rumours circulating on the social media accusing members of the Australian Defence Force of entering PNGDF establishments and changing locks at the armouries. “PNGDF controls its own combination in all armouries and I am very disappointed with people circulating unsubstantiated information,” Major General Gilbert Toropo said. “We are undergoing a major exercise to rebuild and upgrade our armouries around the country and we have completed those for Port Moresby based unit We are now working on those for the Northern Units.” General Toropo also confirmed that ADF is assisting PNGDF in the structural work at the armouries.

A joint operation by the Oceania Customs Organisation and the World Health Organization code-named “Operation EXIT” is expected to provide insights into how the region can combat the illicit trade of tobacco, which continues to be a major concern for the Pacific. During the operation, participating countries will strengthen their targeting and profiling efforts on suspicious trade, identify the modus operandi of the traders of illicit tobacco and share this information for a regional data base. “Tobacco is a globally traded community that attracts a lot of taxes and because of the nature of the product- the trade of illicit tobacco is a very lucrative business- we all need to work together,” guest of honor, Papua New Guinea Chief Commissioner of Customs, David Towe said during his opening remarks at the launch of Operation EXIT. Mr. Towe added that illicit tobacco, contrabands, and counterfeits were a major concern for his administration in PNG. “We need to work together especially in the Pacific as we have limitations in resources and capacities,” Mr. Towe added. In recent years, the illicit trade of tobacco products in the Pacific has increased. The most common form of illicit trade in the Pacific is the import of tobacco products not adherent to domestic tobacco control laws hence these being smuggled into countries under the guise of legitimate trade or even by exchange at high seas from the mothership to local vessels. According to WHO, tobacco usage is an epidemic, a silent killer with 8 million people dying every year, of which 1.2 million were non-smokers, who had never chosen the habit but have been affected. As this affects economies and the environment, Customs administrations have an obligation under the WHO Framework the Convention on Tobacco Control. OCO Head of Secretariat Richard Brennan said this was a concern for all Customs administrations as the trade of illicit tobacco not only eroded the revenue base for countries, but it also caused severe health effects. “Customs has its obligation towards ensuring collection of rightful government revenues and protecting public health and safety. For several years, OCO members have discussed strategies on combatting illicit tobacco trade and individual countries have been undertaking their own national enforcement initiatives,” Mr. Brennan said. “However, we wish to further strengthen the ability of our members to prevent illicit trade of tobacco products across the Pacific; therefore, a regional approach is necessary. The development of a regional database would create a source of information for all members to assist them in strengthening their profiling capacity.”

Fetching and carrying buckets of water has been a daily routine for Health workers when attending to patients at the Doa Health Centre, along the Hiritano Highway. This is now a thing of the past, thanks to BSP Financial Group Limited for donating a dual-purpose water pump with the installation of Solar power to the Doa Health Centre on Wednesday 27th October, 2021. BSP’s Digital Strategic Business Unit through its 2021 Community Project Initiative installed and presented the dual-purpose water pump project that will benefit both the Doa community and the Health Centre Staff – a project that will now have water supply running into the building. Doa Health Centre serves a population of about 10,000 people within the Galley Reach Rubber Plantation area as well as other villages along the Hiritano Highway including the people of Goilala and Kairuku Districts. BSP Digital General Manager Nuni Kulu in handing over the project said BSP as a community bank understands the needs of various communities “and we are proud to part take in improving Doa Health Centre. All our branches, departments and subsidiaries have been delivering Community projects since 2009 across the country.” “Today’s contribution impacts the lives of people, and the community at large, we are so pleased to be part of such a worthy project and the improvement to the type of service this project will have on the community. We do ask the community to take responsibility to look after the installed water pump which benefits everyone in the community to access health services” Ms Kulu added. Officer in Charge of Doa Health Centre, Donata Oa expressed his gratitude to BSP for the timely donation, as access to water supply in the health centre building has been a challenge for more than 7 years. “Today the health centre will have water running into the building for multiple purposes. Aiding both patient and nursing staff with running water is critical, especially at during Covid-19. Mothers who give birth at the health centre will have running water to clean themselves before they leave. Up until today, past patients were told to bring their own water containers, especially mothers in labour to came to the centre to deliver their babies. This will no longer happen. “With the pandemic and recent increase in positive Covid -19 cases, access to clean and running water supply is something that clinics especially in remote areas are in dire need of. The water pump is a big benefit and blessing to us as it reduces the burden of carrying buckets of water,” Oa added. The health facility has two  single room beds for in-patients and one Labour room, and provides Antenatal and Postnatal services, caters for emergency cases such as snake bites, and Tuberculosis, Malaria, COVID-19 Vaccination and others among general outpatient care. Importantly, the Centre has completed over 30 COVID-19 vaccinations and conducts COVID-19 Vaccination awareness to the community.

Motor Vehicle Insurance Limited (MVIL) paid K42.1 million in dividend to Kumul Consolidated Holdings (KCH) for the financial year ending 31 December 2020. Despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, MVIL was able to pay 67% of the budgeted dividend of K63.2m. When presenting the figures, MVIL Managing Director Mr. Michael Makap said the pandemic derailed the company from its strategic direction resulting in a low turnover compared to 2019. In 2019, MVIL achieved budget with an after tax profit of K109.8m compared to budget of K74.0m and paid total dividend of K70.0m inclusive of the K20.0m support to Air Niugini. “Last year, is a little low because of the COVID-19 situation that hit us so bad. We had to close the entity for almost two months. And that brought us a lot of loss revenue," Mr Makap said. He was appreciative of KCH’s support to MVIL and also thanked Minister for State Enterprises Hon. William Duma for his wisdom and guidance. The MVIL Board Chairman Eno Daera gave his assurance to KCH and the Minister that the company will continue to pay dividends, saying that “we will do it (pay dividends) every year and without fail, we will do it next year”.

Commander of the Papua New Guinea Defence Force, Major General Gilbert Toropo, DMS, CBE was pleased to advise that, as part of the ongoing support by the Government of Australia to Papua New Guinea, a delivery of emergency medical supplies is expected to arrive this weekend, onboard an Australian Defence Force C130 transport plane. The emergency supplies are to be flown to Mt Hagen, Goroka, Madang and Lae for distribution to the hospitals there under the supervision of the Provincial and local Health Administrations. Major General Toropo added that this is 'another great example of the Governments and Defence Forces of Australia and Papua New Guinea working together.' Picture courtesy: Australian High Commission

The Foreign Exchange (FX) liquidity has picked up since the second quarter of the year and this has been attributed to strong commodity prices, combined with project specific and donor foreign currency inflows. BSP Financial Group Limited’s Pacific Economic and Market Insights Q3 2021 Report, stated that the PNG Kina has remained unchanged against the US Dollar for a third consecutive quarter, while FX Reserves at the end of June 2021 show a 7 percent quarter on quarter increase, off the back of favourable inflows, according to Bank of PNG. BSP PEM Insight also stated that as of 30th June, 2021, the level of gross foreign exchange reserves was US$2.49 billion. Reserve levels have increased 7 percent quarter on quarter to June 2021, with favourable inflows offsetting the Central Bank’s monthly intervention of US$50 million. While FX liquidity rose 17 percent in the month of September, BSP Group General Manager – Treasury Rohan George said FX turnover over the past 6 months rose by 18%, supported by strong commodity prices, in particular Oil, Copper, Palm Oil, Coffee. “Firmer commodity prices, combined with increased project specific and donor foreign currency inflows offset the lost FX market inflows from the closure of the Porgera Gold Mine.” “Momentum in FX market turnover is likely to increase into year’s end. Outstanding FX orders have increased from low levels seen in June, and this is expected to continue in October and November with pre -Christmas import orders. We expect large foreign currency inflows in late November and December to satisfy any foreign currency backlog. “And to manage reduced FX liquidity, businesses should place FX orders (with correct documentation), as soon as possible, ensure orders are cash backed whilst awaiting execution, tax clearance certificates are current and reflect the expected FX order execution time,” George further stated. It was also reported that the Kina has been stable and unchanged against the US Dollar for the past 11 months; however, the pullback in the AUD/USD, amid Covid-19 related weakness in the Australian economy, strengthened the Kina/AUD, and the Australian dollar is expected to outperform into year’s end as the Australian economy opens up.