As part of Te Marae Ora’s preparations to mitigate the impact of COVID-19, health care services are being reorganised to optimise social distancing and emergency response systems in Rarotonga and the Pa Enua.
The cruise ship Maasdam will be arriving in Rarotonga on Wednesday.
Te Marae Ora Cook Islands Ministry of Health (TMO) has undertaken a thorough risk assessment of the ship for COVID-19 and wants to reassure the public that there is low risk to public health.
Today Cabinet approved the Cook Islands Emergency Response Plan to Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).
Secretary of Health, Dr Josephine Herman encourages people to share accurate information about COVID-19. “We know that there has been some misinformation on Facebook but it’s really important that we stick to the facts about COVID-19,” she said.
Te Marae Ora Cook Islands Ministry of Health (TMO) is closely monitoring the situation regarding two people in voluntary self-quarantine in Rarotonga.
Persons intending to travel to the Cook Islands who have been in – Peoples Republic of China (including Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau) Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Italy and Iran, within the last 14 days prior to travel, will be denied entry into the Cook Islands.
Te Marae Ora has opened the ‘coughs and colds’ flu clinic today at Blackrock clinic. This is in response to the 2019 Coronavirus acute respiratory virus (2019-nCoVard) epidemic in China that is now spreading across the world.
Persons intending to travel to the Cook Islands who have been in China within the last 14 days prior to travel will be denied entry into the Cook Islands. In addition, all Cook Islanders and residents of the Cook Islands should avoid non-essential travel to China.
On 22 January 2020, Te Marae Ora activated the national health emergency response and Incident Management System (IMS), in response to the 2019-nCoV outbreak. The IMS consists of the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) at Rarotonga Hospital and Event Surveillance and Response (ESR) room at Public Health, Tupapa.
Te Marae Ora wishes to update the public regarding the
2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) respiratory virus outbreak in Wuhan, Hubei Province,
China. 2019-nCoV is a new coronavirus that has not been previously identified and it is now
spreading widely across China, parts of Asia, and the rest of the world.
