Vanuatu’s outgoing president, Obed Moses Tallis, has urged the government not to abolish the Ministry of Justice, warning against a “dictatorial system”.

His opening speech to Parliament’s first “ordinary” session of 2022 is his final duty of his mandate which will end in July.

“In my observation during my five-year term as a Head of State, the judiciary in Vanuatu under the leadership of Chief Justice has played an important role in stability, growth and progress of the nation for it uniqueness of it its independency,” he said.

“To cherish the stages of the third pillar of the constitution, I urge the government to carefully consider its decision to abolish the Ministry of Justice.

“It is important that the government maintain the Ministry of Justice. Without the judiciary, there will no effective work from the government and there will be no prosecution.

“The work of the Vanuatu Police force will have no bases and there will be a dictatorial system in place,” he said.

In his speech, Tallis also praised the country’s frontline workers for their hard work during the community outbreak of covid-19.

Frontline workers risked lives
He said frontline workers risked their lives and their families by being exposed to the virus.

He also hailed their efforts in challenging disinformation about the omicron variant.

Tallis said the hard work of the frontline workers had contributed to stabilising the outbreak in the affected provinces.

Meanwhile, Vanuatu’s Ministry of Health reports 37 new cases of covid-19.

Tallis told Parliament Vanuatu had gone through several challenges because of the covid pandemic.

He acknowledged the tourism sector for its contribution to the recovery of Vanuatu’s economy.

“Tourism has contributed a lot to economic growth but the only problem is that it is a fragile industry and cannot sustain us during total border restrictions which restricted the mobility and the movement of the tourists.

Tourism a ‘fragile industry’
“We experienced a high rate of unemployment with the closure of hotels and caused financial difficulties of the family.

“The other reason why I am saying that tourism is a fragile industry is the ongoing climate change impact across the globe which could affect this industry.

“In my humble view, I want to see government to invest more in vibrant industry such as agriculture, fisheries and utilising the natural resources in land and marine,” Tallis said.

He acknowledged government initiatives to redirect its focus in the agriculture sector and the programme of coconut replanting and cattle restocking and the establishment of the connection of the cooperative to the local farmers in order to participate effectively in the country’s economic growth.

The Prime Minister, Bob Loughman, and the Leader of the opposition, Ralph Regenvanu, both thanked Tallis for his role as Head of State during his five-year mandate.

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

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Health workers in Aotearoa New Zealand are thanking Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield for his work stopping the ailing health system from collapsing in the covid-19 pandemic — and for saving lives.

They say they can relate to him needing a rest.

Dr Bloomfield leaves his job in July, stepping down 12 months early after the huge stress of the past two years.

There are few public servants who have had the same degree of fame.

For two years he has been a regular in the living rooms of the country, particularly in the first lockdown when almost everyone was home turning in every day to hear news of the covid-19 threat.

Emergency doctor and chair of the Council of Medical Colleges Dr John Bonning said Dr Bloomfield had to step up to communicate with the public in a role that would normally have been done by politicians.

He exuded trust and had stellar public health credentials, as a medical doctor who had worked for the World Health Organisation and headed a district health board (DHB), Dr Bonning said.

Engaged and communicated
He engaged and communicated very regularly with health worker groups.

“He felt the pain, he felt the pressure along with the rest of us,” he said.

Frontline GP and chair of the Pacific GP Network Api Talemaitoga said the country was lucky to have a director-general with top public health skills when they were needed most.

That meant Dr Bloomfield understood the practicalities of what had to be done — like limiting numbers, mass masking, vaccination programmes and the importance of communication, he said.

Covid-19 Minister Chris Hipkins said Dr Bloomfield’s advice had been at the heart of the government’s decision making and he “had saved thousands if not tens of thousands of lives”.

But not everything was perfect under his tenure. There was a blunder that meant high-risk border workers were not being routinely tested as promised, criticisms about spread in MIQ facilities, delays at times over testing, and a slow vaccine rollout for Māori.

Delays over Māori health autonomy
Te Whānau O Waiapareira chief executive John Tamihere said the director-general had done a decent job but he was uncomfortable with the “idolatry” that had sprung up around him.

He had called Dr Bloomfield out over the past two years on issues like the delays giving Māori health groups autonomy to look after their communities, and of the ministry’s initial failure to hand over health data.

It would be mean-spirited to criticise Dr Bloomfield on his way out, he said.

He was a highly-paid public servant who had done a decent job, particularly for mainstream New Zealand, but his copybook was not completely clean, Tamihere said.

“But … Dr Bloomfield will go down as leading a great result when compared with other nations,” he said.

Pacific health groups had shared the concerns about not initially being able to lead the response for their communities, who bore the brunt of early waves of the virus.

Privy to the big picture
GP Dr Api Talemaitoga said while that was frustrating, he and his colleagues on the frontline were not always privy to the big picture Dr Bloomfield was dealing with “in terms of the whole country, the ministry, and his political masters”.

Senior emergency doctor Dr Kate Allan represents the College of Emergency Medicine and said Dr Bloomfield inherited a “broken health system” but led a response that stopped it from collapsing under the weight of covid-19.

“I take my hat off to him. I think it’s been an amazing job and an incredibly difficult job and I can’t imagine how tired he must be,” she said.

Dr Bloomfield is, in turn, quick to credit people like Dr Allan who worked on the frontline to battle the virus.

‘Relentless’
The director-general of health was one of three top health chiefs to announce their resignations yesterday.

Director of Public Health Caroline McElnay and Deputy Director of Public Health Niki Stefanogiannis are also leaving the ministry.

Health Minister Andrew Little told RNZ Morning Report they had been at the forefront of the covid-19 response and had worked tirelessly. “As Ashley said to me in the weekend, he is just exhausted.”

Thousands of front line health workers had done a phenomenal job and would be feeling the same after two years of the pandemic, he said.

There was still work to be done in terms of the rebuild and the nationwide health restructure “because we’ve got to create that extra capacity.”

“I am committed to filling the gaps that are there.”

‘Saved thousands of lives’
Epidemiologist Professor Rod Jackson said the key leadership group including Dr Bloomfield, the prime minister, senior ministers and others “saved thousands of lives, it saved our health services”.

“The work that they did over the past couple of years, it’s just relentless.” Jackson said. “I’m amazed that they lasted so long.”

All three were there at the most important stage but it was “a bit worrying” they were leaving. “The next phase is going to be messy, it’s going to be more political.”

However, New Zealand had “fantastic” vaccines and the knowledge on how to slow down and contain a pandemic.

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

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Māori health providers in Aotearoa New Zealand are holding back on covid-19 vaccinations for children in the face of growing anti-vaxxer protest in the wider Whanganui region.

That is despite the area recording the second-lowest rate in the country of vaccinations for children aged 5 to 11 years.

Iwi collective Te Ranga Tupua says one of its mobile vaccination clinics was egged in the Whanganui suburb of Aramoho on Wednesday and anti-vaxxer activity has been ramping up since children became eligible for vaccination.

According to the Ministry of Health, as of Wednesday only 1600 (24 percent) of 6600 eligible children in the Whanganui District Health Board area have had their first shot.

The rate for tamariki Māori is even worse, with only 400 (15 percent) of Māori aged between 5 and 11 years getting their first vaccination.

The Whanganui District Health Board area includes parts of Rangitīkei and the Waimarino/Ruapehu district.

Te Ranga Tupua rapid response vaccination co-lead Elijah Pue said anti-vaxxers are now targeting the iwi collective’s mobile teams daily with the message “hands off our tamariki”.

Ramped up the rhetoric
“The anti-vax community have ramped up the rhetoric. It is a health and safety issue for our staff and our frontline teams.”

The iwi collective did not want to bring in security, preferring instead to encourage kōrero, he said.

Te Ranga Tupua is midway through a 15-week effort to lift Māori vaccination rates in Whanganui, Rangitīkei, South Taranaki and the Waimarino.

Pue said the iwi collective was taking the time to engage with parents who had questions or were hesitant before it launched a region-wide child vaccination rollout on 14 February.

About 120 parents participated in an online information session with Covid-19 experts last week. Pue said Te Ranga Tupua would continue to take a cautious approach and had more information sessions for parents planned next week.

The Whanganui DHB vaccination uptake for both Māori and non-Māori children is the second lowest in the country, with only Northland recording lower numbers.

Spokesperson Louise Allsopp said the DHB was encouraging whānau to talk with their trusted healthcare providers to work through any concerns about vaccinating their 5 to 11-year-olds.

“We are also ensuring existing providers are supported to start vaccinating children when they are ready,” Allsopp said.

Right information for whānau
“The key things are that people have the right information to make their decision for their whānau, then [that] vaccinations are available from the right people at the right time. There has been a focus from Māori providers on getting accurate information out there before they start vaccinating.”

The public health team was providing support to local school principals around Covid-19 protection measures, including wearing masks at school. The DHB was also supporting additional providers to start delivering covid-19 vaccinations for both adults and children, Allsopp said.

Covid-19 Māori health analyst Rāwiri Taonui said tamariki Māori vaccination numbers throughout the country were concerning and had to be lifted urgently before the omicron variant took hold.

“There’s an impression that omicron causes milder disease and that’s true but the scale of cases is so large that even a small percentage of severe illnesses is quite a serious situation.”

Taonui said MOH data showed 18 percent of tamariki Māori (5-11s) nationwide had their first vaccination compared to 33 percent for all ethnicities. But the gap was much wider due to an undercount of more than 12,000 in the index the MOH used to count vaccinations and the estimated number of tamariki Māori, he said.

“That gap is closer to 25 or 26 percent. A more accurate calculation of the tamariki vaccination is 16.1 percent for Māori compared to 40.9 percent for non-Māori/Pacific.”

Taonui was calling on the government to cut the wait time between first and second child vaccinations from eight weeks to three, and to prioritise the tamariki Māori vaccination rollout to avoid repeating the inequities of the national vaccination programme to date.

Targeting low-decile schools
“This includes targeting low-decile schools with large Māori enrolments,” Taonui said.

“At the moment Māori cases are very low. But at some point there’s going to be a vector by which Omicron begins to make its way into our community and that is likely to come when our children go back to school and begin mixing with kids from other communities and take the virus home.”

The MOH had to release tamariki Māori data to the Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency and other Māori health providers to help them quickly locate children who had yet to be vaccinated, he said.

Delays in child vaccinations now would carry through to second vaccinations. With the current eight-week wait time between vaccinations, a child vaccinated today would not be fully protected until April – well after Omicron has taken hold in the country.

“That’s a real concern. We could get caught out really quite badly,” Taonui said.

“We are starting to see numbers overseas, for instance in the United States and amongst other indigenous groups, where there’s a lot of children getting ill and child hospitalisations are increasing.

“We’re already in a situation where by mid-January tamariki Māori were 53 percent of all under-12 infection and 63 percent of all hospitalisation. If we don’t get the tamariki vaccination rollout right, those numbers could become even worse.”

Local Democracy Reporting is Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air. Published by Asia Pacific Report in collaboration.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

New Zealand’s most restrictive border controls will be eased early next year, the government announced today.

Most fully-vaccinated travellers into New Zealand would not be required to go through managed isolation from early next year, Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said.

A seven-day self-isolation requirement will take the place of MIQ.

Hipkins revealed fully-vaccinated New Zealanders would be able to travel from Australia without having to quarantine from 11.59pm on 16 January, and from 11.59pm on 13 February that would extend to fully-vaccinated New Zealanders from all countries.

From April 30, all fully-vaccinated foreigner travellers would also be able to come to this country without having to quarantine, though proof of vaccination would be required.

All travellers not required to go into MIQ would still require:

• a negative pre-departure test proof of being fully vaccinated;
• a passenger declaration about travel history, a day 0/1 test on arrival;
• a requirement to self-isolate for seven days, and
• a final negative test before entering the community.

Government ‘still cautious’
Hipkins said: “It’s very encouraging that we as a country are now in a position to move towards greater normality. I do want to emphasise though that travel in 2022 won’t necessarily be exactly the same as it was in pre-2020 travel.”

The government defended its decision not to open the trans-Tasman bubble before Christmas.

Hipkins said the government needed to remain cautious about how much risk the country was exposed to in a short period of time.

He said loosening restrictions domestically and at the border need to be staggered.

215 new covid-19 cases
There were 215 new community cases of covid-19 today — 181 in Auckland, 18 in Waikato, three in Northland and 12 in the Bay of Plenty.

Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield this afternoon said 87 people were being treated in hospital, eight people of those in intensive care.

The Ministry of Health said 118 of today’s 215 new cases were yet to be linked.

There were 18,880 vaccine doses given yesterday — 6496 first doses and 12,384 second doses, meaning 92 percent of eligible people in New Zealand have had their first dose and 84 percent are now fully vaccinated.

Traffic-light system legislation
Legislation setting up the traffic light system — including mandating vaccinations for some workforces — has been pushed through Parliament in less than 24 hours.

Passed under urgency, the bill was opposed by the opposition National, Act and Te Paati Māori parties.

National called it secretive, divisive and unduly rushed. Act said the government had plenty of time to move it through the regular process involving greater scrutiny, and the Māori Party called it a “cruel law change” that would victimise vulnerable communities.

MPs also rejected a change to the traffic light system, which would have seen places of worship and funerals exempt from vaccine certificate requirements.

National’s Simeon Brown had put forward a proposed change to the bill.

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

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

The calls for New Zealanders to get vaccinated are becoming more urgent by the day as covid-19 embeds itself in the community.

Two people have now died in the latest outbreak, the number of daily cases remains in the double figures and the virus continues to spread outside Auckland.

The government has announced a nationwide immunisation push for October 16 — dubbed Super Saturday — but one of Auckland’s leading Māori vaccinators is questioning what it will achieve.

Te Whānau o Waipareira runs two mass vaccination centres, and has given tens of thousands of Aucklanders their Pfizer shots.

Chief executive John Tamihere said the first he heard of Super Saturday was when Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins announced it at a media conference, saying it would be like election day, with clinics open all day and into the night

Tamihere said that would not cut it when it came to getting vaccine stragglers.

“They won’t necessarily turn up, the ones they are endeavouring to target. We have to go out into the streets and take each suburb street by street and to do that you’ve got to know where you’re sending and deploying your resources,” Tamihere said.

More resources rather than big show
“We would probably put a lot more resource into that campaign as opposed to big show days.”

The Ministry of Health today reported 29 new cases of covid-19 in the community, including five in Waikato.

Speaking at today’s government briefing, Director of Public Health Dr Caroline McElnay said seven of the new cases in Auckland were yet to be linked to earlier cases, all of the Waikato cases were linked.

Yesterday, the death of a 57-year-old man from covid-19 was reported, along with 39 new cases in the community. Nine of those were in Waikato.

There have now been 22 cases in Waikato in the current outbreak.

One previous community case has been reclassified as under investigation, bringing the total cases in the outbreak to 1448.

There were also two cases detected in MIQ reported today.

7000 receive drive-through dose
But the recent six-day vaccination event at Vodafone Events Centre is being hailed a success after 7000 people received a drive-through dose.

Among them, many church members of the Assemblies of God Church of Sāmoa who know first-hand the harsh reality of the virus.

A father of seven who lost his battle with covid yesterday was a deacon at the church, and his wife is also in hospital with the disease.

Church spokesperson Jerome Mika said the community was grieving.

He said many members had been vaccinated at the drive-through event in the past few days which was a success due to the many community groups that had supported it.

“Community willingness to be able to just support and encourage their family members to come and get vaccinated.”

The experts agree.

Māori and Pacific leaders a must
Victoria University of Wellington immunologist Diane Sika-Paotonu said to be effective, any vaccination campaign must include Māori and Pacific leaders.

“They’re not just being called in right at the end to help make things work but rather they’re involved right from the outset at the design stage of any activities, events and interventions that are being planned.”

But one group argues they need the right information for that model to work.

Tamihere also heads the North Island’s Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency.

It is taking the Ministry of Health to court for refusing to hand over health data for all Māori that he said was vital to closing the “dangerous gap” in the vaccination rates.

It sits at just over 57 percent for a first dose compared with 81 percent of Pākehā.

“Tai Tokerau is way behind, the Bay of Plenty is way behind. These are Māori communities. It’s not that they’re stupid and dumb, it’s that they’re poorer and their priorities are different and it takes time to reach them.”

The Ministry of Health said it could not share the data because many of the people were not enrolled with Whānau Ora so officials were not authorised to hand it over.

The ministry will release information today on the most and least vaccinated suburbs in the country.

Yesterday 63,000 people were vaccinated as rates climb again after a month long dip.

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

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

New Zealand has 16 community cases of covid-19 today, according to the Ministry of Health.

In a statement, the ministry said 13 of today’s 16 cases had been epidemiologically linked to previous cases.

There have been 10 unlinked cases in the past fortnight.

There was also one historical community case not associated with the current outbreak and another historical case at the border.

The ministry said the community case deemed to be historical was not associated with the current outbreak in Auckland as this case initially came through the border and has been previously reported and spent 14 days in managed isolation, during which time they routinely tested negative.

“They have subsequently tested positive, but this has been deemed historical and is no longer infectious.”

There are 13 people in hospital with covid-19, with four in intensive care.

The ministry said 903 of Auckland’s 1129 cases in this outbreak had now recovered.

Residents of Kāinga Ora apartments in Parnell have been tested after they were added as a covid location of interest in Auckland.

The Ministry of Health added the apartments today, along with a supermarket in Flat Bush.

A person infected with covid-19 visited on three consecutive days – over last weekend and Monday.

Kāinga Ora’s area manager Andrew Walker said they had worked with Auckland Regional Public Health and the City Mission, which has mobile testing capacity, to make it quick and easy for residents to be tested yesterday.

Walker said masks were also delivered to residents and communal areas given an extra deep clean, over and above the special cleaning in alert level 3 and 4.

Yesterday there were nine new community cases of covid-19 reported in New Zealand, the first time in weeks the number of cases had dropped to single figures.

There has now been a total of 1146 cases in the current community outbreak, and there have been 3806 cases in this country since the pandemic began.

A Waitematā District Health Board spokesperson today said that a patient at Auckland’s Waitākere Hospital had tested positive for covid-19 after presenting at the emergency department yesterday, but that the overall exposure risk is considered low.

The ministry said today fewer than 10 patients were affected.

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

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

A covid-19 positive patient is being flown to New Zealand from Fiji today despite an earlier decision by the Ministry of Health to decline the transfer.

The infected patient from Fiji is being flown to Auckland for hospital treatment.

It is reported the person involved is a high-profile staff member employed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) currently working in the covid-ravaged country.

The patient was due to board a special flight that was set to arrive in Auckland this afternoon.

The transfer comes after the Ministry of Health said earlier this week that the formal request had been declined on clinical grounds due to ICU being at full capacity.

The fluidity of the situation at the metro-Auckland DHB ICUs determined this treatment can be provided according to the Ministry of Health.

The receiving hospital is yet to be confirmed, and will be determined by the treatment required by the patient and the capacity in the respective ICUs.

There are appropriate isolation and infection prevention and control plans in place at all the metro-DHB hospitals to accommodate this patient, according to the Ministry of Health.

Any patient coming from Fiji, or any other country, is covered by protocols to protect against the risk of spread of covid-19.

New Zealand’s Ministry of Health said strong protocols were in place to manage the risk of transferring the patient.

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

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz