Papua New Guinea (PNG) prevented the arrival of a flight carrying Chinese workers after a Chinese mining company claimed to have immunized employees against COVID-19 in an apparent vaccination trial, authorities said yesterday.
National Pandemic Response Controller David Manning banned COVID-19 vaccine testing or trials after Ramu NiCo Management claimed to have vaccinated 48 Chinese employees.
Manning also said he had sent back a flight carrying 180 Chinese workers on Thursday as a precaution.
“In light of the lack of information of what these trials are and what possible risks or threat that it might cause our people if they were to come into the country, I had canceled that flight yesterday just to ensure that we continue to act in the best interests of our people and our country,” Manning told reporters in the capital, Port Moresby.
“Until the Chinese government through the Chinese Embassy in Port Moresby provides that information, I will be best guided by our health and medical experts here as to what would be the appropriate steps to take when considering looking at applications of Chinese nationals that have been subjected to these vaccination trials entering the country,” Manning added.
The vaccine was administered to the employees in China three days before they landed in Port Moresby on Thursday last week, Minister for Health and HIV/AIDS Papua Jelta Wong said.
“Details of the vaccine used ... are still not known,” Wong said in an e-mail yesterday.
Manning said the National Department of Health had not approved any trials.
“Any vaccines imported into PNG must be approved by [the department] and must go through vigorous vaccine trials, protocols and procedures” and must be pre-qualified by the WHO, he said.
Wong said no applications for such a trial had been received.
A document on a Ramu letterhead, entitled “Vaccination Statement,” said 48 Chinese employees “have been vaccinated with SARS-COV-2 vaccine” on Aug. 10.
The statement was sent to the department and advised that the vaccine could cause false-positive test results in those who received it, the newspaper said.
Manning has written to Chinese Ambassador to Papua New Guinea Xue Bing (薛冰) seeking “immediate clarification of the Chinese government’s position regarding the vaccination statement.”
Ramu is operated by a subsidiary of state-owned China Metallurgical Group.
Phone calls to Ramu’s office in Madang, PNG, and to the parent company’s Beijing headquarters were not answered.
Australia, which is PNG’s largest provider of foreign aid, had learned that China might have begun trialing a COVID-19 vaccine in the region using employees of state-owned enterprises, The Australian reported.
Australian government officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
PNG has recorded only 361 COVID-19 cases and four deaths, but infections have surged in the past month, particularly in Port Moresby, where a curfew is being enforced as a pandemic measure.
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