Results for Pacific Islands

The city of Auckland is now under level 3 lockdown for three days starting today after a family of three from Papatoetoe tested positive to CoViD-19.

New Zealand expects to vaccinate border workers within two to three weeks, followed by their household contacts, with the first batch of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine set to arrive in the country next week, announced Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern today.

Beautiful Tongan tapa (ngatu) is on display for two-weeks in an exhibition at Te Papa Tongarewa, the National Museum and Art Gallery of New Zealand, by a group of Tongan women in Wellington.

Following the Fiji Government's sudden arrest and deportation of Vice-Chancellor of the University of the South Pacific Professor Pal Ahluwalia, the USP Council on Friday, appointed Tonga’s Dr Masasso Paunga as interim Acting Vice-Chancellor. Tonga’s USP representatives are part of sub-committee looking into the deportation issues.

Tonga has opted out of New Zealand’s new seasonal workers scheme this year, due to not being able to meet certain criteria including a guaranteed return flight home at the end of the season.

152 seasonal workers left Tonga on a chartered flight for Tasmania in Australia this afternoon, January 22.

Air New Zealand has announced the start of services from Rarotonga, Cook Islands, to New Zealand after the recent announcement of a one-way quarantine-free travel route, stating “this is the first step of the phased approach to two-way quarantine-free travel between the two nations.”

An estimated 161 babies will be born in the Pacific islands* on New Year’s Day, according to UNICEF. As the calendar turns to 2021, UNICEF is again celebrating the new lives being brought into the world on January 1. Samoa, in the Pacific, will welcome 2021’s first baby. Niue, its last. Regionally, the highest number of births are estimated to take place in three countries: Solomon Islands (53), Fiji (45), and Vanuatu (22). Statistically, Tonga expects six New Year babies, who may expect to live to the age of 80 years.

A Fiji $2 million grant to help Fiji recover from the devastating impact of Cyclone Yasa was dispatched by the Asian Development Bank on 24 December. Damage assessments indicated that about 93,000 people, or 10% of the population were directly affected.