"No jab, no play."
That's the message from Fiji's National Sports Commission as Covid-19 cases continue to surge in the country.
Photo: Fiji Ministry of Youth and Sports
All sporting events were suspended in May because of the pandemic, and anyone who wishes to be part of sporting activities in the future must be fully vaccinated.
Chairman, Peter Mazey, said sporting bodies found breaching the return-to-play protocols will not be funded.
"If you're not double vaccinated, you won't be able to play sport, and that will include spectators attending events in stadiums and national and indoor arenas," said Peter Mazey.
"If we want to keep sports safe and to keep playing, we're going to have to put in place strict rules and if they're not following the rules, then we would not be there to help them with funding," he said.
The return-to-play protocols include, but are not limited to, staying within bubbles, social distancing, mask wearing and mandatory vaccination.
"We want to get back into sports, and to do that, they have to follow the guidelines... those guidelines are there to ensure the safety of the athletes, the technical officials and even the spectators," Peter Mazey said.
A three tier system will also help set a possible future date of when sport can resume in the country again.
Shawntell Lockington won high jump gold for Fiji. Photo: Peter Carroll/Van 2017 Media
Mazey said they want to get rid of Covid-19 and so the future of local and international sporting events in Fiji relies on compliance to safety protocols.
"Sport plays a huge role in our communities everywhere. Everybody's excited about the announcement of the new Super Rugby draw, and the Fijian Drua playing in that, but if we're going to have Super Rugby games played in Fiji, to make those safe for the teams and everything, we're going to have to be safe," he said.
It's been four months since football has been played in the country.
Fiji Football's President, Rajesh Patel, said they've backed the "no jab, no play" policy since kick-off.
"That's been our policy from the start and we were the first sporting organisation to implement that," he said.
"That's the slogan that's going around now with everyone getting on board to follow."
Patel said while not everyone agreed with the mandatory vaccination rule, it's one members and players would have to follow if they wanted to play football again.
"Some of them were not happy, but some of them know if they want to continue their career playing and everything, they need to be vaccinated," Mr Patel said.
"If they need to travel overseas for any qualification or anything, they all need to be vaccinated, and I'm lucky to say all our national players have got their first jab, we're 100 percent and our second jab most of our players are at 50 percent, so we should be 100 percent done with the second jab by end of August," said Rajesh Patel.
Fiji's domestic rugby league competition is set to kick off in July. Photo: Fiji National Rugby League
Fiji National Rugby League acting Chief Executive Officer, Don Natabe, said the reaction from the rugby league community has been positive, and they're optimistic to see the sport being played again soon.
"We have encouraged those who are eligible to get vaccinated to have the vaccination, and if they have any doubts they should consult their physician," Don Natabe said.
"The reception from the clubs has been positive and we should have, if not all of those rugby league participants, those playing and officiating, to have majority of them done [vaccinated] by October," he said.
The more players and officials vaccinated will contribute to having approval from the National Sports Commission, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Youth and Sports, he added.
"One of the pre-requisites was to look at how many participants have had their jab...as of this morning we have confirmed that one club has done a full vaccination and we've sent out a reminder to our other clubs which is important," said Don Natabe.
The vaccination rollout is currently underway for all of Fiji's sporting organisations.
The bottom line is that all sporting officials, players and spectators over 18 years of age in Fiji must be fully vaccinated if they want to participate in any future games or competitions, nationally or internationally.