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Solomon Islands

Status: Current response

Half the team will be working in the Malaita Province. Pictured: A busy main street in the town of Auki, the capital of Malaita (Dec 2016). Credit: Sam Lawrence

Until this year, the Solomon Islands – a pacific country with a population of just over 690,000 – was one of the very few countries in the world to remain relatively free of COVID-19.

At the start of 2022, the country’s population was affected by their first community transmission of COVID-19, which quickly spread across several regions of the country with a rapid rise in the number of cases and deaths. To date, the number of confirmed cases reported has risen to 8150 with 118 deaths (8th March 2022).

The country has struggled with testing capacity. There is a shortage of tests. There are only lateral flow tests, as there isn’t the capacity to carry out PCR tests. Because there is a delay with testing data (the data reported here is three weeks old), it’s expected the case and deaths numbers could be higher.

690000

Total population

8150

Cases

168

Deaths

Like in many places around the world, there is a significant stigma around COVID and there are stories of people catching, suffering, and dying from COVID-19 without seeking medical help.

Even though almost 100% of health staff are vaccinated, hospitals have been short-staffed as many staff have been off sick with COVID-19. Food security is also an issue.

No hospitals in the Solomon Islands have ICUs (Intensive Care Units), PPE is in short supply, and a few of the beds have been upgraded to HDUs (High Dependency Units). There is also an ambition to upgrade isolation wards in both Western Province and Malaita to treatment centres.

Our response

As part of the UK EMT, a team of nine, led by Field Manager Eunice, are flying to the Solomon Islands to support COVID-19 case management, IPC (infection prevention and control), RCCE (risk communication and community engagement), capacity-building and upskilling national staff.

Over two weeks, the team will be split and support two hospitals in Malaita Province and Western Province. Malaita is home to around 170,000 people – one-third of the total country’s population. 10% of people in Malaita have had two vaccinations and 25% have had one vaccine (as of 8th March 2022).

The UK EMT deployment will build – where possible – on the work that has already been done recently by the Australian Medical Assistance Team (AUSMAT), who were in Solomon Islands last month.

Our response in more detail

Reviewing the capacity of the healthcare facilities we’ll be working in to appropriately manage and treat any patients with COVID-19.

Strengthening (and hopefully increasing) the overall capacity of local health facilities and national medical staff. We’ll provide the support required to mitigate clinical care interruptions.

Providing required clinical training and on-the-job mentorship, working alongside national health staff dealing with COVID-19 cases. We’ll be developing any appropriate training programs too to enhance overall capacity.

Working with staff and in the wider community to learn existing COVID-19 perceptions before building RCCE response plans and working with key community stakeholders to share messages.

Supporting the appropriate identification, screening, and triage of patients into respective facilities, as well as supporting any relevant referral mechanism capacity.

Limiting healthcare worker infections and wider community transmission. We’ll do this through the implementation and/or reinforcement of infection prevention and control measures in targeted facilities and deliver any relevant training to local staff.

Read more about our COVID-19 responses around the world.

With thanks to the British people via funding from the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO).

Donate to support our emergency responses:

“There are lots of people with illnesses that did not follow up because of their fear of Covid-19. They are simply afraid of coming to the hospital … This results in some dying at home; some presented at the emergency and died.”

– Senior Doctor, February 2022 (The Guardian)