Chinese Ambassador to Papua New Guinea Xue Bing (3rd R) and Foreign Minister of Papua New Guinea Patrick Pruaitch (4th R) attend the donation ceremony in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, May 11. Photo: Xinhua

Papua New Guinea has asked  the World Health Organization for help after a rapidly spreading new coronavirus outbreak sparked preparations for large-scale community transmission in the under-resourced country.

Having mostly dodged the COVID-19 pandemic until now, Papua New Guinea reported Thursday it had detected three new cases in the previous 24 hours, bringing the total to 30 - up from just 11 on Sunday.

With limited coronavirus testing and many positive cases found in health workers, there are fears that the virus may have a stronger foothold than those detected cases indicate.

National pandemic response controller David Manning expressed "serious concerns on the alarming rate of increase of COVID-19 cases in Port Moresby and the likely spread to the other provinces," saying there was a "high likelihood of expanded community transmission."

Papua New Guinea's rickety health system is already under severe pressure from the widespread transmission of malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS, as well as one of the world's few remaining outbreaks of polio.

Against the growing threat Manning said that the WHO was in the process of mobilizing international emergency medical teams to deploy to the country.