Health authorities in Solomon Islands are scrambling to find close contacts of a student who tested positive for Covid-19 more than two months after being released from managed quarantine.
The outpatients area at the National Referral Hospital in Honiara, Solomon Islands. Photo: RNZ/Pacific Koroi Hawkins
In a statement, the goverment confirmed the student was repatriated from the Phillipines in September last year, tested positive for Covid-19 in quarantine, before recovering and being released in November after five consecutive negative test results.
The Solomon Star newspaper reported the student spent the Christmas-New Year period in his home village in Malaita Province before falling sick and testing positive for Covid-19 at the Kilufi Provincial Hospital this week.
A national medical team had been dispatched to do follow up tests at the hospital and at the patient's village.
The patient had since travelled by ferry to Honiara and had been isolated in a hospital in the capital were a second test returned a negative result for Covid-19.
The government said it would be releasing an update on the situation later today.
