Boost for water supplies in Kiribati, Samoa criminals try to sneak out, and Marianas has new covid subvariant
New desalination plant to be built in Kiribati
New Zealand and Australia have announced a further $NZ673,000 will be invested in a new desalination plant and electricity generator in Kiribati to help maintain its drinking water supplies.
Kiribati's groundwater reserves have an increased salinity because of a lower than normal rainfall which has forced the Kiribati government to declare a state of disaster last month.
Water tanks shipped to Banaba Photo: Facebook / Tekiana Leupena
New Zealand's Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta said the new plant for Tarawa will convert seawater to fresh water and produce an additional 200,000 litres per day.
Samoa criminals sent back home by America Samoa
Three Samoan citizens were deported from American Samoa, two of them sex offenders.
Police Commissioner Auapa'au Logoitino told Radio Polynesia the men arrived in Samoa last week on the Lady Naomi ferry.
Auapa'au said all three men have served time in prison and they are being deported to Samoa as part of their sentences.
He said two of the men are now registered with the Samoa sex offender registry that is managed by the Ministry of Police and Prisons.
Northern Marianas has newest covid subvariant
The Northern Marianas now has the most recent subvariant of covid-19 called BA.5.
The Commonwealth Healthcare Corporation CEO Esther Muña said a specimen that was shipped out for testing over two weeks ago was confirmed to be of BA.5 covid-19 subvariant.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said BA.5 is by far the most easily transmissible variant to date.
The subvariant reportedly can elude previous immunity from covid infection and vaccination and currently accounts for more than half of country's new covid-19 cases.
New Caledonia has another 1000+ covid cases
New Caledonia has recorded another 1,295 covid-19 cases.
The latest figure, covering the past week, brings the total number of cases since September to 66,596.
Infection numbers have begun increasing in recent weeks and are a multiple of what was recorded two months ago.
The death toll remains at 314 - all of them died after the Delta variant entered the community in September.
The official update makes no mention of any covid-19 patient still in hospital care.
Most pandemic-related restrictions have been lifted.
New covid cases in Nauru dropping
There are 16 new cases of covid-19 in Nauru bringing the total to 4,129 active cases.
The latest update is up to the end of Monday which also shows 2,790 Covid cases have recovered.
Seven people have been admitted to Nauru's acute care unit.
There remains one covid-related death.
139 houses are currently lockdowned impacting 1,984 residents.
With the current lockdown in place, public health teams will set up vaccination stations for children within districts and conduct house to house vaccination visits.
Goa says only his party can discuss the territory's future with Paris
The head of New Caledonia's largest pro-independence party says his Caledonian Union is the only legitimate partner to discuss New Caledonia's future with France.
Daniel Goa issued a statement after a meeting in Thio to discuss the aftermath of the 1998 Noumea Accord, which had provided for three independence referendums.
On the UN decolonisation list since 1986, New Caledonia voted against independence for a third time in December in a plebiscite marked by a high level of abstentions by the indigenous Kanaks over the management of the pandemic.
They refuse to recognise the referendum outcome as legitimate.
Goa said his party will now seek talks with France as the administrative colonial power, which can decide by itself what happens next after the Noumea Accord's expiry.
He said the French president Emmanuel Macron has decided for the French state to abandon its neutral position in the process and instead to side with New Caledonia's anti-independence parties.
Paris wants to draw up a new statute for a New Caledonia within France and put it to a vote in New Caledonia by June.