Almost 40 percent of the population of Wallis and Futuna has been vaccinated against Covid-19 as a lockdown over its first community outbreak is entering its fourth week.
Moderna vaccine against COVID-19. Photo: AFP
In the past three weeks, 385 people tested positive for the virus and four of them died.
All but ten of the cases were registered on the island of Wallis where nine people are in hospital.
A total of seven patients have been flown to hospital in New Caledonia, including the very first Wallis resident to test positive for the virus.
The detection of Covid-19 in Wallis was followed by the first Covid-19 community cases in New Caledonia a day later, prompting the authorities in Noumea to order an immediate three-week lockdown, which has now been extended to Easter.
The New Caledonian authorities are contemplating making Covid-19 vaccinations compulsory for airport frontline staff but the idea is opposed by the unions.