Results for Pacific Islands

A low-cost emergency care ventilator that can be used in local hospitals to assist with the COVID-19 pandemic, has been developed by engineering students and staff at the University of the South Pacific (USP) in Fiji.

Tonga is providing further input over a five-day workshop to help develop the regional 2050 strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent, which aims to ensure Pacific people will lead free, healthy and productive lives. A session on Oceans and Natural Environment was held today 25 May, with representatives from other Pacific countries joining in virtually.

Students in the Pacific (including Tonga) selected under New Zealand’s scholarship program in 2019, 2020, and 2021 may be able to start studying in New Zealand in 2022.

A two-way, quarantine free, travel bubble between New Zealand and the Cook Islands started today with the first flight to Rarotonga leaving Auckland this morning.

A woman with COVID-19 died on 12 May in Fiji after she was entered into intensive care when her condition started to deteriorate, according to health officials yesterday. Dr James Fong warned Fiji that if the spark of Covid-19 “isn’t quickly and aggressively extinguished, a tiny ember is all it takes to start a massive, uncontrollable wildfire that claims thousands of Fijian lives.”

A patient at Lautoka Hospital who tested positive for COVID-19 yesterday afternoon, died a few hours later at 6:35pm, confirmed Fiji’s Permanent Secretary of Health, Dr James Fong today. Lautoka Hospital is now in lockdown as part of efforts to prevent a wider outbreak. “Fiji, I do not use the word “war” lightly. But, right now, we are in a war with this virus,” he said.

The economies of the Cook Islands, Niue, Samoa, and Tonga will continue to decline in 2021. “The COVID-19 pandemic is the worst economic crisis in the history of these countries,” said economist James Webb. “While lives have been saved, livelihoods have been lost.” Economic recovery in tourism-dependent Polynesian countries will be slow, says a new ADB report.

COVID-19 cases in Fiji continue to increase with six new cases confirmed yesterday, 27 April, bringing the total to 42 active cases, according to health officials. Recent cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed to be the B1617 variant that was first detected in India. Dr James Fong has warned Fijians to stay at home because “any person-to-person contact outside your home could get you infected.”

Tonga will receive USD$5.5 million to help roll out its vaccination program, after the Asian Development Bank today, approved USD$18.9 million in grants to help four developing member countries in the Pacific roll out safe and effective vaccines against the coronavirus disease COVID-19.