Kudjip, Papua New Guinea: Prayer is requested for Nazarene General Hospital (formerly Kudjip Nazarene Hospital). Recently, Dr. Erin Meier, a Nazarene missionary serving at NGH shared the Covid-19 situation in the hospital.
Nazarene General Hospital had its first Covid-19 case in March 2021 and it lasted for a few months. And by the end of June, the Covid-19 cases admitted in the hospital hit a pause. During the first wave, there were over 120 patients diagnosed with Covid-19, and 70 of them were admitted to the Respiratory Isolation Ward (RIW). From 6 beds, they added 24 more beds in a span of a few weeks as the number of cases increased so as the need for the hospital to quickly respond to the patients’ needs. In this span of time, they had figured out their limitations as their journey to cure COVID-19 continues. They could provide oxygen, but they had no ventilators or trained staff to run them. They have some medicines, but they don’t have advanced treatment options that other parts of the world can provide.
The staff was glad to have their break from COVID-19 from June until August. However, they knew it would come back and will double its impact because of the Delta variant that is more contagious and is rapidly spreading all over the world.
Second Wave
At the beginning of September, COVID-19 came back for its second wave in Kudjip. In just a month, the hospital has diagnosed over 140 patients and the RIW had as many as 22 patients in it (18 was the most during the first wave). The hospital planned to have additional RIWs so that they can admit as many as 40 patients who need oxygen as they fight to recover from the virus.
Praise Report
We thank God that before the second wave came, NGH was able to start vaccinating over half of its staff and high-risk patients. This gave them some protection as they fight to win the battle against Covid-19. Also, some of the staff who were infected go mild illnesses and no one needed hospitalization.
Prayer Items
The hospital has been struggling to keep all of its services because they lack manpower. They scaled down their services to emergency only and are hoping to combine their two wards to have additional staff to keep the hospital going. They are also hoping that more of their staff recover and rejoin the workforce.
