Australian High Commission
Papua New Guinea

Health infrastructure package for COVID-19 response

The Australian Government has announced the provision of portable health facilities to support the COVID-19 response in Papua New Guinea.

In partnership with the National Department of Health, Australia will deliver ten containerised health facilities to boost PNG’s health infrastructure capacity.

These facilities can be deployed to existing health centres and hospitals and used for support services, including triage and referral, treatment of non-infectious diseases, injuries and prenatal and postnatal care. This will help free up space elsewhere in existing health facilities to treat identified and suspected COVID-19 patients.

In addition to boosting health system capacity to respond to COVID-19, these facilities can, in the longer-term, be deployed by the PNG Government to provide much needed longer-term health infrastructure across the country.

The containerised health facility that will be used to provide support services at health centres and hospitals.

The new facilities are in addition to the substantial assistance Australia is already providing to the health system, including support for provinces and the national response. We will reprioritise over PGK 67 million from existing commitments to provide a wide-ranging package of support that builds on our current activities while providing direct assistance to prepare and respond to an outbreak. We are supporting a comprehensive national response, led by the Government of PNG.

Australia remains committed to working together with PNG to prepare for and respond to the pandemic. 

For further information, including access to related materials, please contact the Australian High Commission media team: +675 7090 0100