Solomon Islands has the highest-ranked passport of Pacific Island nations, at 37th equal globally.

This is according to the Henley Passport Index.

The index, organised by a consulting firm that describes itself as “the global leader in residence and citizenship by investment,” releases the list based on global travel freedoms using data from the International Air Transport Association.

The index includes 199 different passports and 227 different travel destinations.

The Solomon Islands passport has access to 134 countries out of 227 on the list.

Samoa and Tonga have access to 131 destinations, while the Marshall Islands has access to 129.

Tuvalu is in equal 41st place with access to 128 countries, while Kiribati, the Federated States of Micronesia and Palau can visit 124 countries visa-free.

Further down the list is Vanuatu with access to 92 countries; Fiji with 90; Nauru, 89 and Papua New Guinea, 87.

Singapore tops the global list, with access to 195 countries, ahead of Japan (193 destinations) and six countries in third equal position – Finland, France, Germany, Italy, South Korea and Spain (192 destinations).

New Zealand is 5th equal (able to visit 190 countries) and Australia 6th equal (189 countries).

The ranking is the highest for New Zealand since 2017. It peaked at No 4 in 2015 but dipped as low as 8th in 2018 and 2019.

At the tail end of the list are countries including Yemen, Iran and Syria, with Afghanistan at the bottom ranked 106th, with only 26 countries allowing visa-free access.

Incidentally, Australia also has the most expensive passport in the world — with a new adult passport costing A$412 (US$255.30) ahead of Mexico (US$222.82), the USA (US$162.36) and New Zealand (US$120.37).

Henley and Partners said it uses a scoring system.

For each travel destination, if no visa is required for passport holders from a country or territory, then a score with value = 1 is created for that passport. A score with value = 1 is also applied if passport holders can obtain a visa on arrival, a visitor’s permit, or an electronic travel authority (ETA) when entering the destination.

The total score for each passport is equal to the number of destinations for which no visa is required (value = 1).

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

For the first time in more than two years, New Zealand’s border will reopen to international visitors at midnight tonight.

On 19 March 2020, New Zealand snapped its border shut to anyone without citizenship or residency, before any covid-19-related deaths were recorded.

It was the first time in our history such a move was made, with the ban also including those from the Pacific.

Today, the countdown is on to welcome back vaccinated visitors from 60 visa-waiver countries.

New Zealand’s already reopened the border to vaccinated Australians and some international students.

Air New Zealand chief executive Greg Foran said almost 1000 people will arrive on the first three flights, which will come from Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Fiji.

The airline has been struggling to prepare for the influx in international visitors due to staff recruitment issues.

The Ministry of Health reported 14 more more deaths with covid-19 and a further 8242 new community cases on Friday.

The seven-day rolling average of case numbers was 7540, down from last week’s 8166.

The total number of reported deaths with covid-19 rose to 737

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

There is global concern and widespread alarm at the discovery of SARS-CoV-2 variant B.1.1.529, which the World Health Organisation (WHO) has called omicron.

The WHO classified omicron as a “variant of concern” because it has a wide range of mutations. This suggests vaccines and treatments could be less effective.

Although early days, omicron appears to be able to reinfect people more easily than other strains.

Australia has followed other countries and regions — including the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and the European Union — and banned travellers from nine southern African countries.

Australians seeking to return home from southern Africa will still be able to do so. But they will enter hotel quarantine and be tested.

Those who have returned from the nine countries – South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho, Eswatini, the Seychelles, Malawi and Mozambique – in the past 14 days will have to isolate.

But Omicron has already been detected in other regions, including the UK, Germany, Israel, Hong Kong and Belgium. So while a travel ban on southern African countries may slow the spread and buy limited time, it’s unlikely to stop it.

As the Australian government and others act to protect their own citizens, this should be accompanied by additional resources to support countries in southern Africa and elsewhere that take prompt action.

When was Omicron detected?
The variant was identified on November 22 in South Africa, from a sample collected from a patient on November 9.

South African virologists took prompt action, conferred with colleagues through the Network of Genomic Surveillance in South Africa, liaised with government, and notified the World Health Organisation on November 24.

This is in keeping with the International Health Regulations that guide how countries should respond.

The behaviour of this new variant is still unclear. Some have claimed the rate of growth of omicron infections, which reflects its transmissibility, may be even higher than those of the delta variant.

This “growth advantage” is yet to be proven but is concerning.

South African officials said the country is being “punished” for detecting the new Omicron variant as more countries rush to enact travel restrictions.

“Excellent science should be applauded and not punished,” the country said in a statement. https://t.co/Yicmn852uv

— Axios (@axios) November 27, 2021

‘Kneejerk’ response vs WHO recommendations
African scientists and politicians have been disappointed in what they see as a “kneejerk” response from countries imposing travel bans. They argue the bans will have significant negative effects for the South African economy, which traditionally welcomes global tourists over the summer year-end period.

They note it is still unclear whether the new variant originated in South Africa, even if it was first identified there. As omicron has already been detected in several other countries, it may already be circulating in regions not included in the travel bans.

Travel bans on countries detecting new variants, and the subsequent economic costs, may also act as a disincentive for countries to reveal variants of concern in future.

The WHO does not generally recommend flight bans or other forms of travel embargoes. Instead, it argues interventions of proven value should be prioritised: vaccination, hand hygiene, physical distancing, well-fitted masks, and good ventilation.

In response to variants of concern, the WHO calls on all countries to enhance surveillance and sequencing, report initial cases or clusters, and undertake investigations to improve understanding of the variant’s behaviour.

WHO warns world leaders against knee-jerk reaction to coronavirus variant from South Africa as U.K. and EU impose travel bans
WHO names new variant omicron, says it’s a variant of concern but there’s a lot we still don’t know.
Wear that face mask, peoplehttps://t.co/XdfnmKdf34

— ciara linnane (@LinnaneCiara) November 26, 2021

Omicron must be taken seriously. Its features are worrying, but there are large gaps in our current knowledge.

While further analyses are undertaken, the variant should be controlled with testing, tracing, isolation, applying known public health measures, and ongoing surveillance.

What can wealthier countries do to help?
Wealthy countries such as Australia should support African nations and others to share early alerts of potentially serious communicable disease threats, and help mitigate these threats.

As the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response noted in May:

[…] public health actors only see downsides from drawing attention to an outbreak that has the potential to spread.

The panel recommended creating incentives to reward early response action. This could include support to:

• establish research and educational partnerships
• strengthen health systems and communicable disease surveillance
• greatly improve vaccine availability, distribution, and equity
• consider financial compensation, through some form of solidarity fund against pandemic risk.

Boosting vaccine coverage is key
Vaccines remain the mainstay of protection against the most severe effects of covid-19.

It is unclear how effective vaccines will be against omicron, but some degree of protection is presumed likely. Pfizer has also indicated it could develop an effective vaccine against a new variant such as Omicron within 100 days or so.

Covid’s persistence is partly attributable to patchy immunisation coverage across many parts of the world, notably those least developed. South Africa itself is better off than most countries on the continent, yet only 24 percent of the adult population are currently fully vaccinated. For the whole of Africa, this drops to only 7.2 percent.

Greater global support is urgently needed to boost these vaccination rates.

African institutions and leaders, supported by global health and vaccine experts, have argued for mRNA vaccine manufacturing facilities on the African continent. These would prioritise regional populations, overcome supply-chain problems, and respond in real time to emerging disease threats.

Yet developing nations face significant barriers to obtaining intellectual property around covid-19 vaccine development and production.

While there is still much to learn about the behaviour and impact of omicron, the global community must demonstrate and commit real support to countries that do the right thing by promptly and transparently sharing information.

Dr Anthony Zwi is professor of global health and development, UNSW. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

As the delta variant of covid-19 spreads to more than 96 countries, Papua New Guinea has put in tighter measures that include all incoming passengers and crew to be vaccinated before boarding any international flight entering the country.

Police Commissioner David Manning, who is also Controller of the PNG COVID-19 National Pandemic Response, released the new control measures yesterday.

Under the updated measures, all incoming passengers and crew should be vaccinated before boarding an international flight coming into PNG.

And the mandatory quarantine period has been extended to 21 days for all incoming travellers, with covid-19 tests to be undertaken on the first, seventh and final day of quarantine.

Scheduled flights can continue as normal, while unscheduled flights require approval from the Controller.

Manning said the new measures were aimed at preventing the spread of the covid-19 delta mutation.

PNG is struggling with widespread community transmission of the virus, with more than 17,000 confirmed cases and rising.

‘Serious threat’
“The delta strain of covid-19 poses a serious threat to our country, and we will do everything we can to prevent or delay its arrival and spread,” Manning said.

Institute of the National Affairs executive director Paul Barker has welcomed the new measures, saying that the restrictions on international flights are really wise — but they also needs to apply to the West Papua border with Indonesia.

“The variant is dominant in India and has become dominant in a short time in Fiji, UK, and South Africa, and is spreading fast in US, and lately has slipped into UK,” he said.

“It’s 60 percent more infectious than the UK variant, which was 60 percent more infectious than the original virus we have here.”

“It’s good to keep it out as long as we can, but it’s already spreading fast in Indonesia, so it will be challenging.”

Overseas destinations
Meanwhile, Air Niugini has also released a statement advising passengers on Air Niugini international flights departing from overseas destinations on or after Friday, July 2, 2021, and entering PNG, must now :

• Be fully vaccinated against covid-19, and provide evidence in the form of a vaccination certificate at check-in;
• Quarantine for 21 days on arrival in PNG at the individual’s expense;
• All previous approvals for home quarantine, or shorter quarantine period, have been revoked by the Controller; and
• All previous Controller approvals for a person to enter PNG as required under previous Measure 2 remain effective, but are now subject to the new direction.

There are no changes to the requirements for international passengers departing from PNG.

Air Niugini continues to operate six flights a week to Brisbane, one flight to Sydney, four flights per week to Singapore, and twice weekly flights each to Manila and Hong Kong.

Rebecca Kuku is a senior journalist with the PNG Post-Courier. This article is republished with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Although international travel restrictions for Australia have been extended to at least June, there may still be potential for a trans-Tasman bubble with New Zealand (and maybe some other countries), according to reports.

Air New Zealand will begin trialling digital vaccine passports (or “immunity passports”) on routes to Australia in April.

Ideally, these digital certificates will allow authorities to quickly check whether prospective travellers have been vaccinated.

The specific passport system New Zealand is set to adopt — along with Qantas, Malaysia Airlines, Singapore Airlines and Qatar Airways — is the International Air Transport Association (IATA)‘s digital Travel Pass app.

But to be effective, this system would need to meet several key criteria. The vaccine passports would need to be linked securely to travellers, comply with different countries’ regulations and be almost impossible to illegally copy or modify.

How would it work?
It is expected at least the vast majority of people travelling on an airline using the IATA software will have to use the pass. The system has four steps:

1. a vaccine-recording component for when a person is first vaccinated
2. the transfer of this person’s vaccine-related and personal data to the IATA software
3. verification of the data by an authorised party
4. digital cross-checking, to ensure a government’s travel requirements are applied to all travellers entering or leaving that country. This would also make sure each traveller has the necessary prerequisites needed to enter their destination country.

The software would work by establishing an international network of trusted vaccine providers. The IATA is already compiling this list. These providers, including hospitals and clinics, would receive access to the software’s vaccine-recording component.

With this they woud log information about a patient’s vaccination and identity details (such as passport number). So you would almost certainly need to present a valid passport when getting vaccinated.

For those already vaccinated by the time the system is rolled out, an option would be needed to transfer existing records to the app. Again, this would require confirmation the person requesting the data transfer is the same person who was vaccinated.

Before-departure checks
Once your vaccine and identification details are logged, this would generate a data file to be sent securely to the app’s software. This file would be encrypted and stored on the device itself, only to be retrieved by an authorised person with your consent.

Border and airline staff could check whether the lab identification is valid by comparing it to the IATA’s list of trusted vaccine providers. This check would be done using a wireless near-field communication system, similar to that used for contactless payments.

At this point, the border control unit would also confirm if the identification you presented when getting your vaccine is still valid. They could also check your passport against the national passport database, which is standard procedure.

Such a system could be set up to flag important updates. If a vaccine batch failed quality control, or a certain provider was removed from the approved providers list, this would need to be reflected quickly.

Security advantages of vaccine passports
A notable advantage of vaccine passports is they’re hard to forge compared to paper records. The IATA software would unbreakably link your identification details with your vaccination status.

Even if someone stole your phone or copied its data, this data would match only your passport. If they stole your passport, too, they’d likely still get caught during normal passport checks.

On Apple (iOS) smartphones the in-built “secure enclave” feature would prevent your Travel Pass app information from being moved remotely to another device without the right permissions. Android and other operating systems have similar tools used for smart wallets.

Using vaccine passports also minimises data sharing. In each case of information transaction, such as when crossing border control, the only data shared are your identification details and vaccine information.

An achievable set-up
Most countries are requiring that all covid vaccines administered be recorded on a national register. In Australia, this is the Australian Immunisation Register.

The IATA will publish the Travel Pass app’s software interface, which is what enables other programs to transfer data to and from the software.

With the interface available, countries should be able to simply integrate the software into their own vaccine management systems. Governments could even apply their own rules to the software.

For instance, one may decide to reject vaccine records from a particular provider, or demand a longer waiting period once a vaccine is received.

This could obviously cause problems for travellers who may be planning to go to a destination with different protocols to the origin country. That’s why this would have to be sorted prior to travel, just as visas often are.

Minor issues and loopholes
For now, a digital vaccine passport would only be available for people with a smartphone or tablet. Also, each traveller in a group would need their own vaccine passport.

This could be tricky for families with young children or other dependants who don’t (or can’t) use smart devices. One fix would be for parents or carers to store dependants’ information on their own device.

The only credible route for vaccine passport forgery would be if a vaccination management system, such as one used by a GP or hospital, somehow recorded patient data incorrectly.

This could be done by someone deliberately impersonating someone else. Then again, the impostor would have to convince both the health worker administering their vaccine and staff at the airport. This would be difficult if a passport is used.

Similarly, a hacker could potentially attack the Australian Immunisation Register (or other vaccine registers) to generate false data to feed into the IATA system. But these registries tend to be well-protected.

And if one were compromised, it would be simple to invalidate vaccine certificates tracing back to it for as long as the issue was not resolved.

Dr Dave Parry, professor of computer science, Auckland University of Technology. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

The Cook Islands government’s inaccurate and startling announcement yesterday about a tourism bubble opening with New Zealand as soon as next week has done more harm than good.

Clearly a failed attempt at trying to force Jacinda Ardern’s hand into giving a date now and using mouthpiece media to do it, it’s a rookie mistake, an embarrassment, and has done nothing for healthy diplomatic relations.

Jacinda Ardern must have choked on her cornflakes when she heard the Cook Islands Deputy Prime Minister Mark Brown’s ambitious announcement.

READ MORE: Mixed views still over Pacific travel ‘bubbles’

So, here are the facts – yes, discussions are happening between the two governments, yes, there is an agreement for a tourism bubble, but no date has been set as to when that will be as specific processes need to happen first.

Everyone knows the covid-free Cook Islands is crying out for tourists and that Kiwis are crying out for a safe island destination to holiday in.

It’s a match made in heaven. But it’s not unreasonable for the New Zealand government to ensure any border reopening with island neighbours gives as much consideration to safety as to speed.

It needs to be done right the first time and it needs to be done properly.

Border breaches
While New Zealand looks good with no community spread of covid, this could change down the track. There could be border breaches, there could be any manner of things. It only takes one person.

If procedures are put in place to start with, like tracking and tracing, then these can swing into action to protect both local populations and visitors.

Barbara Dreaver talks tourism bubbles on TV One.

And tourism can continue. The last thing that needs to happen is the speedy opening of a tourism bubble and then having to close it again because it wasn’t done right the first time.

It’s easy to understand the Cook Islands’ desperation. Come September, the island government’s wage subsidy for those impacted by covid-19 runs out and tourist operators will be even worse off than they already are.

Many families who rely on the tourism dollar have taken loans to build the holiday houses they rent to tourists – and interest rates in the Cook Islands are nine or 10 percent.

The country is doing it tough, as is Samoa, as is Fiji.

Tahiti’s desperation
Tomorrow French Polynesia will open up its border to the world, including the covid-ridden US.

And no quarantine period for visitors shows the measure of that desperation.

That country’s leadership is taking a calculated risk with the lives of its people to protect jobs and the economy. But what a risk.

The Cook Islands tourism industry has very strong and noisy advocates – they always have been and that’s not a bad thing.

The continuous stream of calls to “open the border now” has been relentless. The campaign to get anyone on board who will listen has been widespread – personalities, talk show hosts, reporters, opposition MPs, anyone who can be used, is being used.

Theories abound about New Zealand not wanting Kiwis to take their tourist dollars elsewhere, that it’s political etc etc.

Maybe there’s some truth to that but it doesn’t change anything and you can guarantee the same people in New Zealand who are bleating on about opening the bubble now will be the first to indignantly proclaim that New Zealand didn’t look after its island neighbours should something go wrong.

Jacinda Ardern has been consistent in her messaging about protecting Pacific countries and that’s hardly surprising after being burnt by Samoa’s measles epidemic which originated from New Zealand.

Speed is important, it absolutely is, but so is safety for our island neighbours.

The Pacific Media Centre has permission to republish Barbara Dreaver’s TV One articles.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Fiji has put its hand up to join New Zealand and Australia’s travel bubble amid the covid-19 coronavirus pandemic.

On Friday, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she was keen to reopen NZ’s borders with its Pacific island neighbours.

Fiji’s Attorney-General, Aiyaz Saiyed-Khaiyum, said he had discussed his government’s plans with its two major partners in the region.

READ MORE: Eco-tourism major key to ‘tricky’ Pacific economic reset, says Leary

Saiyed-Khaiyum said it was important that New Zealand and Australia understood the “hub status” of Fiji in the Pacific.

“We talked about the travel bubble, the requirements and indeed the time period in which New Zealand is looking at opening up their borders.

“New Zealand’s first priority is obviously Australia. What we did highlight to them is that there needs to be a more nuance approach in terms of dealing with us in the Pacific.”

Saiyed-Khaiyum urged New Zealand and Australia to assess each country individually as the Pacific island states had different experiences, capacities and capabilities of their health system during the pandemic.

Eased travel restrictions when safe
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her Australian counterpart, Scott Morrison, had announced they would ease travel restrictions between the two countries as soon as it was safe to do so.

Ardern said New Zealand was keen to work out post-Covid-19 travel bubble arrangements with Australia first before talking to the Pacific countries.

“New Zealand is keen to reopen borders with its Pacific island neighbours but not just yet.”

But the Fiji government said New Zealand and Australia needed to understand that the Pacific island countries were different from each other.

The Attorney-General said rather than thinking that if they had to open up the bubble, they would need to open up to everybody, New Zealand and Australia could look at how each island country was handling the coronavirus crisis.

Aiyaz Saiyed-Khaiyum said since Fiji’s 18th case was recorded on 21 April, there were no new cases of the virus and only four patients remained isolated in hospital.

“We have been fairly good in terms of the way that we’ve handled the cases relating to Covid-19, in terms of our recovery and the fact that we are one of the few, first countries to close its borders in respect to the high-risk countries, in respect to the cruise liners,” he said.

‘Successful fever clinics’
“We also have these very successful fever clinics that have gone around the country with over 700,000 people tested.

“These things don’t get resolved overnight or decisions made overnight. There are various risks to be considered. In Australia’s cases, they have different states with difference in positions or quarantine requirements in place. But that is something they’ll need to resolve.”

Saiyed-Khaiyum said Fiji had put its hand up to join the travel bubble and it was looking at placing itself “in a more prime position for example the legal frameworks.”

He said if there was protocol developed that if a New Zealander who had to travel to Fiji “then they should perhaps be compulsory temperature testing before they get on the plane from NZ and then they get off, there could be another test here.”

He said a lot of work was needed to be done in these areas including a detailed analysis.

“What happens, for example, if a person does not have a temperature before they leave NZ but when they land in Fiji they do have a temperature? What happens to the airline tickets, what happens to travel insurance? Where do they get kept? If they need to be quarantined, what are the expenses?”

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

By RNZ News

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced late today wide-ranging travel restrictions which mean as of midnight tomorrow anyone coming into New Zealand will have to self-isolate for 14 days.

The only exemption is for people coming from the Pacific islands, but New Zealanders returning from overseas will not be exempt.

The measures will be reviewed in 16 days and the government will provide more advice for self-isolation and an economic package for businesses next week.

READ MORE: Coronavirus – global live updates
READ MORE: Sixth coronavirus case in NZ confirmed

Until now, foreign travellers arriving from mainland China and Iran have been banned from entering the country. Travellers from South Korea and Italy have been asked to self-isolate for two weeks on arrival.

As of midnight Sunday every person arriving will have to isolate themselves for 14 days, Ardern said. That will mean New Zealand will have the strongest restrictions in the world, she said.

She said the measures will be reviewed in 16 days and there will be more measures and advice for self-isolation next week.

All cruise ships are also being asked to not come to New Zealand until June 30. It does not apply to cargo ships.

Handful of cases ‘not realistic’
The prime minister said it is not realistic for New Zealand to only have a handful of Covid-19 cases.

However, “New Zealand has today relative to other countries a small number of cases,” Ardern said.

We have two choices as a nation, Ardern said. One is to let Covid-19 roll on, the other is to go hard on measures to stamp it out. It is in our power to slow it down, she said.

New Zealanders’ public health comes first and this constitutes an unprecedented time.

“Cabinet made far reaching and unprecedented decisions today because these are unprecedented circumstances. As of midnight Sunday every person entering New Zealand, including returning New Zealand citizens and residents, will be required to enter self isolation for 14 days – everybody.

“The Pacific are exempted from this measure, they are the only ones. Anyone from this country though will be required to automatically self isolate should they exhibit any Covid-19 symptoms on arrival in New Zealand. All of these restrictions will be reviewed in 16 days’ time.

“This decision will mean New Zealand will have the widest ranging and toughest border restrictions of any country in the world. We are also encouraging New Zealanders to avoid all non-essential travel overseas – this helps reduce the risk of a New Zealander bringing Covid-19 in.”

Cruise ship directive
In addition to restrictions on air travel, as of midnight today the government is issuing a directive to all cruise ships not to come to New Zealand until at least 30 June at which time the directive will be reviewed – this is for incoming cruise ships.

“It doesn’t apply to cargo ships, marine or air crew, so that sea and air freight can remain open for imports and exports.

She wanted to ensure that essential airfreight such as pharmaceuticals could continue to enter the country.

“We do not take these decisions lightly, we know these travel restrictions will place a significant strain on the aviation industry and we anticipate some routes will reduce or cease for a period of time.”

This article is republished under the Pacific Media Centre’s content partnership with Radio New Zealand.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

By Sri Krishnamurthi

Former Director of Public Health Dr Colin Tukuitonga says it is incumbent on New Zealand to screen passengers travelling to and from the Pacific Islands thoroughly for the Covid-19 coronavirus.

Coronavirus continues to proliferate rapidly outside China where it originated, topping 90,000 cases and 3000 deaths worldwide.

There was risk of “devastating” the Pacific Islands, just as the measles outbreak did in Samoa last year with 5700 cases of measles and 83 deaths, out of a Samoan population of 200,874.

READ MORE: Coronavirus deaths in US rise to six – latest updates

“As for having something like the measles epidemic in the Islands, for example flights to and from Niue are to New Zealand first, and if New Zealand doesn’t scan all the passengers thoroughly then there is a chance of this virus spreading into the Islands,” Dr Tukuitonga said.

“In public health we use what we call as the precautionary principle where we do not have all the information that we need. The natural history of the coronavirus infection remains unknown.”

Dr Tukuitonga, who is the inaugural associate dean Pacific of Auckland University’s Health and Medical Sciences Faculty, said: “New Zealand doesn’t seem to be as concerned about the assessment and spread of the coronavirus. It has spread very quickly in Italy and South Korea.”

He recalled his time as the chief executive officer of the then Ministry Of Pacific Island Affairs in 2009 when there was an outbreak of influenza A (H1N1) 09, (swine flu) particularly among Pacific people.

No large gatherings
“Someone from the Pacific Media Network interviewed me and I recall I made a statement then that people shouldn’t congregate in large gatherings in the community, and I am of the same view now,” he said.

Minister for Pacific Peoples ‘Aupito William Sio said his advice, posted on social media was: “Not be scared but be prepared”.

“Given Samoa’s warning to our people travelling to Samoa, given coronavirus, what messages can you share with us to help our community?” he asked Dr Neru Leavasa on a Facebook post.

Dr Leavsasa emphasised that prevention was better than a cure approach.

“As a precautionary step, if you are coughing, rather than coughing into your hand, cough into the crook of your elbow, and if you do sneeze then use a tissue and get rid of it and wash your hands.”

The minister was also asked by Mangere-Otahuhu Local Board chair Lemauga Lydia Sosene: “What about large gatherings?”

He replied: “That’s a problem because we love to greet and hug, I’m going to suggest that instead of the greeting, hugging and kissing, that people give a thumbs up, nod and the bent-elbow sign in greeting.”

Close contact warning
Dr Leavasa warned about close contact.

“Yeah, elbow pump, but pretty much no hand contact, if you do then wash your hands for about 20sec,” Dr Leavasa said.

The Minister for Health, David Clark, has told Pacific Media Network it was safe to attend the Pasifika and Polyfest festivals.

“We’re confident at this stage the chance any spread into the community is very low, as long as people take sensible precautions,” Clark said.

Agnes Loheni, the National Party’s associate spokesperson for Pacific people urged caution and for people to be extra vigilant with proper hygiene practices.

“Serious illnesses such as the flu tend to have a worse toll in Māori and Pacific communities, especially if there are other issues such as overcrowded and inadequate housing,” she said.

“The recent measles outbreak in South Auckland showed how quickly highly contagious illness can spread so we need to make sure we’re doing everything we can to minimise the impact of coronavirus” she said.

As of yet, no cases have been recorded in the Pacific Islands.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

An Air Niugini plane which landed in a Micronesian lagoon apparently overshot the runway on landing.

The Boeing 737-800 was scheduled to stop in Chuuk on its way from Pohnpei to Port Moresby.

All 47 people on board are reported to be safe by the national police.

LATEST UPDATES AT RNZ PACIFIC

The plane was reportedly carrying 36 passengers and 11 crew.

RNZ Pacific’s correspondent Giff Johnson said small boats quickly went out to help rescue passengers from the plane before it sank in the waters off the runway in the Chuuk capital, Weno.

“It clearly wasn’t a crash, in the sense of a plane going down and coming apart. The plane seemed to be intact and that fits in with landing on the runway and then shooting off which we’ve had some experience with, with other airlines.”

All through Micronesia generally runways are short, according to Giff Johnson, who’s based in the Marshall Islands capital, Majuro.

“On a normal landing you end up 30 metres from the end of the runway and the end of the runway means water,” he said.

An Asia Pacific Airlines Boeing 727 cargo plane overran the runway in Pohnpei 10 years ago.

According to reports it came to a rest with its nosewheel in the water of the lagoon at the end of the 1800 metre runway in May 2008.

This article is republished under the Pacific Media Centre’s content partnership with Radio New Zealand.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz