Papua New Guinea media reports paint a grim, ongoing picture of full morgues due to the surge in Covid-19 cases.
Transmission of the Delta strain of Covid is understood to be widespread in several provinces, particularly in densely populated urban areas.
Health workers moving body bags at Goroka Hospital's morgue. October 2021. Photo: EMTV
Hospitals in the biggest cities, including Port Moresby, Lae, Mt Hagen and Goroka are reported to be full, as deaths from the virus have become a daily occurrence.
Already under-resourced health services are being stretched to a greater extent than in PNG's previous wave of the pandemic around March.
The mortuary at Port Moresby General Hospital is full - with 300 bodies there at present it has reached full capacity - and now bodies are being stored at another unspecified location.
The Head of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Moresby General, Dr Glen Mola, told the ABC that his team is dealing with one to two deaths a day in the maternity ward alone.
At Moresby General as well as other hospitals in the Highlands, Morobe province, and in western provinces on the border with Indonesia, wards are full and health workers among those getting infected.
Tasked with overseeing the country's response to the pandemic, the National Control Centre scaled back surveillence testing in June.
With limited testing, and a lack of routine reporting of the cause of deaths in many parts of PNG, the Centre's statistics of 26,154 Covid cases and 325 deaths so far in the pandemic are likely to be far below the true measure.
There is also vagueness over the percent of PNG's population to have received vaccination, with health sources saying it remains well below 5 percent.
Teams travelling the provinces to vaccinate or raise awareness of vaccination continue to encounter hostility from sections of the community.
Meanwhile, the country's Covid-19 steering committee is reported to be considering whether to recommend a lockdown plan for Port Moresby.
