SYDNEY, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- Papua New Guinea's (PNG) total COVID-19 infections surpassed the 500 mark on Tuesday, with six new confirmed cases, taking the overall number to 503, pandemic response authorities said.

Half of the new cases were from the capital of Port Moresby and surrounding area, with the rest scattered across three different provinces, while nationally the number of virus related deaths remained at five.

National Pandemic Response Controller David Manning said testing for COVID-19 across the country was still critically low, and urged people to wear masks in public and adhere to social distancing and hygiene measures.

"In the last 24 hours, a total of 15 provinces have sent reports on the number of suspected COVID-19 cases as well as the influenza-like illnesses and severe acute respiratory illnesses. But the number of samples being collected for COVID-19 is still critically low," Manning said.

"As simple as it seems by practicing these health measures you are protecting yourselves and especially vulnerable members of your family from COVID-19."

Last week, PNG further relaxed COVID-19 restrictions, curfew hours around the national capital area had been changed from midnight to 5:00 a.m. (local time) everyday, rather than 10:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m., effective from Sept. 3.

The strategy is part of an effort to gradually bring normalcy back to the country while health authorities continued to monitor the pandemic situation. Enditem

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