PINA

The Speaker of the Bougainville parliament, Simon Pentanu, has confirmed that he has Covid-19. Pentanu said he was now into day 5 of 14 days in isolation. His infection comes as part of a surge in Papua New Guinea of Covid-19 infections, where there were now over 3,000 cases and at least 36 deaths. In the autonomous region of Bougainville, the number...

Around the world, people of faith are calling on their leaders to close the massive gap between what is required to limit global temperature rise and actual climate change commitments by governments and financial institutions. Most religions hold core to their beliefs the sacredness of the earth and God’s creation, and so they are calling for world leaders to address...

Former Cook Islands Prime Minister and Manihiki MP Henry Puna is looking forward to assuming the top Pacific Islands Forum role after the High Court dismissed the charter flight case that saw him facing fraud charges. Incoming Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum Henry Puna is expected to take on his new role on 17 May. Puna, the current Manihiki...

The growing gap between the number of vaccines being given in rich countries and those administered through COVAX is becoming “more grotesque every day”, the head of the UN health agency said on Monday. “In January, I said that the world was on the brink of a catastrophic moral failure unless urgent steps were taken to ensure equitable distribution of...

Climate change has hit the world’s oceans hard, UN weather experts said on Monday, in a call for lifesaving monitoring and early warning services that were interrupted by COVID-19 to be ramped up again, to protect shipping and coastal communities at risk. In an alert that warmer seas helped to fuel a record Atlantic hurricane season last year, along with...

A total of 242 new cases of COVID-19 were reported on Saturday bringing the Papua New Guinea total confirmed cases to 3,359. The death toll remained at 36. The new cases came from eight provinces with the National Capital District recording the highest number of cases with 112. The others are Western – 88; Morobe – 7; Western Highlands – 2;...

Samoa caretaker Prime Minister, Tuilaepa Dr Sailele Malielegaoi says that 79,000 batches of COVID-19 vaccines will arrive in the country by the end of March. Tuilaepa said the Government has been told it will receive a much larger than previously stated number. “We have received confirmation that at the end of the month of this month, we will receive our first...

The deployment of the third batch of 162 Fijians last week has taken Fiji’s number to over 500 workers in Australia since the recommencement of the labour mobility programs during the COVID-19 period since November 2020. At the closure of our borders, the Ministry of Employment has deployed a total of 231 workers under the Australia Pacific Labour Scheme (PLS). This...

by Hermann Mückler The withdrawal of the five Micronesian members from the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) may be seen by pessimists as the beginning of a further erosion of regional cooperation institutions. Others point to the only conditional importance of the PIF, positioning the bar for withdrawal very low. Still others accuse Australia, and some Australia in cooperation with New...

Crew on a Royal New Zealand Air Force Boeing 757 have carried out a contactless delivery of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to Port Moresby to help Papua New Guinea deal with a surge in COVID-19 cases. The delivery of the PPE follows the Government’s announcement on Friday that New Zealand is providing additional support to PNG following the spike in...