PINA

Australia's Minister for the Pacific, Zed Seselja, recently declared that “until everyone is safe from COVID, no one is safe”. But it's an objective that looks a long way off, given countries like Australia's nearest neighbour, Papua New Guinea, have some of the world’s lowest vaccination rates. Australia has donated hundreds of thousands of vaccines to its Pacific neighbours. But PNG's most...

Palau President Surangel Whipps Jr, signed an air service agreement last week with Nauru, citing Palau looks forward to the day when air services can be restored with Nauru Airlines. According to a press statement from the Nauru government last Friday, President Lionel Aingimea says the signing of the agreement “symbolises the profound relationship and friendship between Nauru and Palau,...

Holidaymakers wanting to travel to Samoa once borders re-open will likely have to wait until 2022. CEO of Samoa's tourism authority Fa'amatuainu Lenata'i Suifua said that vaccinations and a tracer app would be key to letting tourists in. “You'll need to download the app before you come to Samoa,” he told Pacific Beat. He said the app was based off the “privacy...

Warm greetings from the Blue Pacific region, and thank you for this opportunity to share with you what the Pacific Islands Forum is doing to respond to the climate change crisis and implement the Sustainable Development Goals, to assure our future generations of a resilient future. The 2021 Sustainable Development Report by Cambridge University confirms that the COVID-19 pandemic has...

The decision of the former Vanuatu Speaker of Parliament on the announcement of the vacation of seats of 19 Members of Parliament (MPs) has been overturned. This comes as Justice Viran Molisa Trief ruled Monday that the MPs have not been absent on three consecutive sittings, thus Prime Minister Bob Loughman, Deputy Prime Minister, Ishmael Kalsakau and other 16 other...

The President of Liberal Democratic Party, Willie Jimmy, said granting pardons to three former Vanuatu Prime Ministers (PMs), particularly Charlot Salwai, who had not even served half of his sentence is unfair to him and other convicted politicians. He personally thinks the pardon power, under Article 38 of the Constitution, is being abused. “It’s totally unfair to many of us,”...

With extreme weather events increasingly impacting countries across the world, the deputy UN chief on Monday underlined the importance of limiting temperature rise to the internationally agreed goal of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. “The entire planet is going through a season of fire and floods”, Amina Mohammed told a high-level meeting on climate action, primarily hurting fragile and...

Fiji has recorded 128 new cases of COVID-19 and 12 deaths Monday, increasing the total number of cases in the Pacific nation to 47,923 and 518 deaths since the outbreak in April this year. Permanent Secretary for Health, Dr James Fong said 78 cases are from the Western division, 45 cases are from the Central division in Vitilevu, Fiji’s main...

A National Summit on Covid-19 will be held this November, says Papua New Guinea National Pandemic Controller David Manning. Manning said that they intended to hold the national summit on the PNG COVID-19 National Pandemic Response which will see participation from key partners involved in our response. “The intention of the summit is to bring everyone together to look at the...

New Caledonia has detected three cases of Covid-19 in the community and ordered a two-week lockdown from midday Tuesday. The three cases are not connected and involve people who haven't travelled, suggesting the virus is circulating in the community. President Louis Mapou said investigations have been launched immediately to identify contacts and the chain of transmission. One of the cases is an...