PINA

Fiji has recorded 1,187 new cases of COVID-19 and 11 new deaths Wednesday, increasing the total number of cases in the island nation to 33,850 since the outbreak in April. Permanent secretary for Health, Dr James Fong said 387 cases are from the Western division and 800 cases are from the Central Division in Vitilevu, Fiji's main island. He said there...

A new vaccine may be needed if the Delta variant of Covid-19, which is currently in Fiji, continues to mutate, health experts say. The government said more than 22,000 people with Covid are in isolation and the death toll has reached 270 since the outbreak in April, and climbing. The victims included an 11-month-old baby, pregnant mothers, a 15-year-old teenager and...

-The United Nations has come under fire from a leading human rights advocate in Fiji for evacuating one of its Covid-positive workers for treatment to New Zealand last week. A United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) worker in Fiji with Covid-19 was medically evacuated to New Zealand on an air ambulance jet on Thursday, and was taken to Middlemore Hospital for...

The head of the UN health organisation called on Wednesday for a moratorium on COVID-19 vaccine boosters until “at least the end of September” to enable the world’s most vulnerable people to be inoculated. “I understand the concern of all Governments to protect their people from the Delta variant, but we cannot accept countries that have already used most of...

It is still not known if the Pacific Island delegations will be physically represented at the 26th Conference of Parties later this year in the United Kingdom. Fiji’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Satyendra Prasad said if smaller states cannot be represented at all or in the numbers that they need to be, it will be a disadvantage...

Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape has ruled out any Cabinet reshuffle despite two ministers currently facing a leadership tribunal. The ministers are Telefomin MP Solan Mirism, the Defence Minister, and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Commerce and Industry Sam Basil, who is Bulolo MP. Marape told The National he respected all Cabinet ministers “and there is no vacancy...

-New rules allowing seasonal workers to enter New Zealand without going through managed isolation have been welcomed in Samoa, Tonga and Vanuatu. The relaxed restrictions for workers from the three countries in the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme are expected to be a boon for the tourism-reliant countries, which have had no visitors for the past 17 months. But the RSE...

A step in the right direction, but missing a crucial ingredient - that’s how advocates for migrants’ rights describe the New Zealand Government's apology for the Dawn Raids. The missing ingredient is a clear path forward for overstayers, says Migrant Workers Association president Anu Kaloti. Amnesty for the close to 14,000 overstayers currently in New Zealand would give the apology meaning...

Ashley Bloomfield says the New Zealand Ministry of Health did not heavy Auckland clinicians into changing their minds and accepting a UN official with Covid-19 from Fiji. But the director general of health couldn't say what new information had informed the clinicians' decision to do a U-turn and accept the patient. The infected worker was flown to Auckland for hospital treatment...

Those who live on the islands and atolls of the southwestern Pacific Ocean are exposed to rising seas and severe storms like almost no one else on Earth, and yet only a fraction are insured against the growing threat of climate change-related ecosystem, human, and economic losses. A new initiative from WWF and the global advisory, broking, and solutions company...