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Pacific Update: Funeral for Papua New Guinea's founding father leads to fears of Covid-19 spike

March 11, 2021

1 NEWS’ Barbara Dreaver has her latest news round-up from the Pacific region.

As Papua New Guinea grapples with a major increase in Covid-19 infections, the the family of late Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare are isolating after a carer fell ill.

There have been over 800 cases in the past five weeks in PNG, and Port Moresby's hospital is struggling to cope, with 40 per cent of mothers admitted to the labour ward testing positive.

It's expected to get worse after thousands gathered to pay their respects to Sir Michael, regarded as the nation's founding father.

Also in this week's Pacific Update, there's concern in Fiji over a draft bill that would give police sweeping powers to monitor communications, and on Banaba in Kiribati, there are reports the island is critically short of water.

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