Tongans overseas get some word on repatriation flights, travellers to French Polynesia warned full proof of vaccination mandatory, Unclaimed bodies in PNG's capital buried in mass grave, Possible cyclone threat in Solomons, New Caledonia, and more
Tongans overseas get some word on repatriation flights
Tongans stranded overseas will have to wait until at least January 18th for repatriation flights.
Photo: Pixabay/BeFunky
A government official has told Matangi Tonga flights from Australia, Vanuatu, Fiji and possibly Samoa have been confirmed tentatively for that date.
A repatriation flight from New Zealand is pencilled in for January 20th.
Last month hundreds of Tongan seasonal workers, stranded in New Zealand, pleaded to be allowed to get home before Christmas.
But the Ministry of Internal Affairs chief executive Fotu Fisiiahi, says the government can only bring them home when it is safe to do so, and it's not ready to do that.
He says their primary concern remains keeping Covid-19 out of Tonga, and that there was no way Tonga could extend its current quarantine capacity beyond 300 people.
Meanwhile, 96 percent of Tonga's eligible population has now received the first dose of the vaccine.
71 percent are fully vaccinated.
Travellers to French Polynesia warned full proof of vaccination mandatory
Travellers arriving in French Polynesia will now have to show proof of full vaccination as authorities try to slow the spread of covid-19 and prevent the Omicron variant getting into the country.
The decision was made by the government and welcomed by unions which had been calling for such restrictions.
The general secretary of the union umbrella group, Patrick Galenon, said this will help control the pandemic and encourage local employees to get vaccinated.
He said if the United States imposes vaccination on passengers it will in future also apply to travellers from New Caledonia, Australia and New Zealand once flying becomes an option again.
Unclaimed bodies in PNG's capital buried in mass grave
The bodies of 54 adults and nine children were buried in a mass grave in the PNG capital Port Moresby after they were left "unclaimed" in the city's General Hospital's mortuary for six months.
Hospital medical services director Dr Kone Sobi says 250 bodies have been kept in the mortuary since March because no-one had come to claim them.
Dr Sobi says mass burials are not the Melanesian way of sending off the dead, and is also expensive for the hospital to carry out.
He says there's been an increase in the number of bodies brought to the mortuary each day during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Possible cyclone threat in Solomons, New Caledonia
A low weather pressure system currently near Solomon Islands has the potential to develop into a Tropical cyclone.
New Zealand's Metservice says the low is expected to gradually move south-east towards New Caledonia from Saturday.
The Solomon Islands Meteorology Service has warned heavy rain and thunderstoms are expected over most provinces from this system.
King tides displace thousands in PNG
Papua New Guinea's national disaster centre says over 53,000 people in coastal areas and atolls have been displaced by king tides.
The centre says the current king tide season has caused havoc in PNG's north and islands region, including East Sepik and Manus provinces.
Furthermore, disaster officials in the autonomous region of Bougainville say that at least 3,400 people in the Carteret Islands have had their homes and food gardens inundated.
The Post Courier reports that Bougainville's government has allocated 250,000 US dollars to provide food and medicines as well as logistics to transport the relief and for further assessment.
Protest in Cook Islands over early border re-opening
Around 300 people have marched to the office of the prime minister and cabinet in Rarotonga demanding it delay plans to re-open the borders on January 14th for another two months.
Opposition politician Teariki Heather said the Cook Islands healthcare system is unable to cope with an outbreak of Covid.
"I don't think we are even accomodating the needs for the health system here. We don't have eough of those respirators here, and the second is our concern for our vulnerable NCDs which is about 60 percent of the total population in the Cook Islands and the second major one for us is our elderly parents," he said.