Papua New Guinea is walking a tightrope on coronavirus, so it's abandoned lockdowns

Papua New Guinea residents have been told they must learn to live with COVID-19 as the Government looks to abandon lockdown measures aimed at preventing the spread of the coronavirus.

Yesterday, Papua New Guinea's Prime Minister, James Marape, flagged that a two-week lockdown of the capital Port Moresby — due to end today — would not be extended despite the country's rising coronavirus cases.

"We have to adapt to living with COVID-19 for this year instead of taking on drastic measures," he said.

"The advice I received from our medical and scientific teams was to adjust to living with COVID-19."

Mr Marape said people must take coronavirus seriously but that if they, "adhere to simple measures" like wearing face masks then Papua New Guinea can, "live with COVID-19" while identified cases are isolated, "to ensure to the best of our ability we don't let the number of deaths slip away".

It's a shift away from the Prime Minister's message almost two weeks ago, when Mr Marape announced a shutdown of Port Moresby as the number of cases reached 60.

"If we don't stop this fire, our bed space in Port Moresby General Hospital is so small that we can't deal with an outbreak that is pandemic in nature," he said at the time.

Already, some Port Moresby residents have welcomed the easing of restrictions, while others have raised concerns it could see cases rise further faster and potentially overwhelm the country's health system.

Port Moresby Governor Powes Parkop is among those who support Mr Marape's decision, arguing PNG must focus on measures that better suit the local setting and can be effectively enforced.

Aside from the country not having enough hospital beds or medical staff to handle a widespread coronavirus outbreak, Mr Parkop said Port Moresby could not afford to stay in lock down.

He said the Government had to walk a tightrope with the economy already under stress before the pandemic. Now COVID-19 has put it "on the brink".

"We don't only have a medical pandemic, but we have an economic crisis," Mr Parkop said.

As a result, the Governor said he had been pushing for a new strategy to fight coronavirus that was based on "the reality" of life in PNG.

Why some think lockdowns aren't realistic in PNG

Mr Parkop said measures like social distancing and staying home were not being properly practised during the lockdown and were impossible for many residents.

"When I walk around and drive around the city, it's two different worlds," he said.

"What the [emergency] controller is trying to [enforce] and what actually happens on the ground [are] totally different worlds."

At least 40 per cent of Port Moresby's residents live in informal settlements, which are often overcrowded.

"The students for example, staying at home is more risky," Mr Parkop said.

"At home, the parents aren't there, but at school they wear masks all day, they wash their hands, there's social distancing, there's running water."

Concerns PNG yet to hit virus peak

But Mr Marape's decision is also a change from the country's Nuipela Pasin plan, which was released in response to COVID-19 and says that in the case of community transmission, a strict lockdown will be introduced.

It appears that won't be happening anymore.

People are instead being told to continue wearing masks in public, to limit travel and restrictions on gatherings of 15 people will remain but won't apply to shops or markets.

The lifting of lockdown measures will allow public buses to restart services and schools to reopen on Monday.

Already-infected people flying out of Port Moresby have spread COVID-19 to other parts of the country.

The Prime Minister initially said flights out of the city would stop as part of the lockdown but that did not happen. Indeed, the Prime Minister was among those who flew out.

One of the exported cases has temporarily shut down Ok Tedi, a major gold and copper mine where 64 Australians are employed. Another case has been recorded at a mine run by Australian-based Newcrest Mining, but it hasn't stopped operations at this stage.

Some restrictions on air travel have now been introduced, but Mr Marape said flights would continue.

Papua New Guinea has now recorded 214 cases of COVID-19 and three deaths, after a recent surge in Port Moresby.

While that might be considered low when compared with other countries, it's a sharp jump from the 11 cases the country had in mid-July following an outbreak linked to the city's biggest hospital.

And the chief executive of St John Ambulance PNG, Matt Cannon, warned there were likely more undetected cases.

"Testing is relatively low, so people with confirmed COVID-19 are therefore low in numbers," he said, adding that they had set up a testing clinic to try to help boost the testing rates.

"It's very possible that the peak of this virus is yet to come in Papua New Guinea."

PNG looks to find own way on managing COVID-19

St John Ambulance is preparing to train PNG soldiers to help staff ambulances, with predictions cases will continue to rise.

"I think there's no denying the global opinion that stage four lockdowns do work, and you can see that in some countries like New Zealand," Mr Cannon said.

"However, with every country being different, this approach might not be possible or successful in Papua New Guinea.

"[It's] what a lot of people are discussing."

Police Minister Bryan Kramer is urging people to continue to be vigilant now the lockdown has lifted.

He said "common sense must prevail" as police had limited capacity to enforce all the COVID-19 restrictions, like mandatory face masks and limits on the number of passengers on public transport.

Mr Parkop said the country's citizens were resilient and would survive.

"I don't think we are conceding defeat," he said.

"I prefer that we are dealing with this virus in a different way, in our own way."