Talks on repatriation of stranded Nauruans in Fiji

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Nauruans stranded in Fiji because of COVID-19 border restrictions could be making their way home soon.

Discussions were being held between the Nauru COVID-19 Taskforce and its national carrier on the possibility of repatriating Nauruans from Fiji and Taiwan.

Nauru president Lionel Aingimea said Fiji was of concern given the highly infectious Delta strain circulating within its communities.

A Nauru goverment statement read there were about 223 Nauruans in Fiji, five of whom were fully vaccinated, 95 had received their first dose, 23 were unvaccinated while 100 were ineligible as they were under 18 years of age and were not recommended to take the AstraZeneca vaccine.

“The taskforce has been advised to commence looking at other alternative vaccines such as Pfizer and Moderna, which can be administered to the age group 12 to 18 years,” the statement read.

“The taskforce will be looking at logistics, procurement and storage of the alternative vaccine.

“The official campaign for the COVID-19 second dose vaccination ended on Saturday, 3 July and 90 per cent of the target adult population of Nauru are now fully vaccinated.”

Aingimea said there were 678 individuals (10 per cent) who had not received their second shot.

SOURCE: FIJI TIMES/PACNEWS