Vanuatu recorded the highest number of repatriated citizens and residents from overseas since border closures last year compare to other countries in the region

Since Daily Post published an article on COVID-19 vaccines for Vanuatu in the beginning of January, attempts to have further follow-up questions answered by the Ministry of Health have been futile.

It is a new year and living here in Vanuatu we have much to be thankful for. Vanuatu remains one of the small number of countries in the world that is COVID-19 free. And I congratulate the Government and people of Vanuatu for this success.

Google Trends has shown that in the last seven days, keyword Search for Vanuatu in the Netherland Province of Overijssel peaked with a 100% interest since Alexander De Groot’s story was published in Alegmeen Dagblad and Tubantia, two of the Dutch daily newspapers.

Congratulations to the Health Team and the team providing security at quarantine sites.

The Government will roll out the third phase of the repatriation exercise next week.

Growth in the Pacific subregion for 2020 has been further downgraded as the impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic continues to squeeze the region’s economies.

China’s Ambassador to Vanuatu, Zhou Haicheng, yesterday presented a cheque of Vt11 million to the Vanuatu Government towards the COVID-19 response.

New Zealand and the Cook Islands will let people travel between the countries without quarantine, its leaders have announced.

Most Australian volunteers returned to Australia early in the year due to COVID-19, however the Australian Volunteers Program (AVP) has continued to support partner organisations in Vanuatu throughout 2020.

The British High Commissioner in Vanuatu, Karen Bell, has confirmed that the United Kingdom will roll out the COVID-19 vaccine across the United Kingdom later today- Vanuatu time.

Vanuatu citizens living and studying in Fiji returned to Vanuatu yesterday under the Vanuatu Government’s final repatriation flight for this year.

People returning on repatriation flights from medium and high-risk coronavirus countries must have a negative COVID-19 test 72 hours before boarding.

The Government, through the Council of Ministers (COM) has endorsed the recommendation of the National Disaster Committee (NDC) to lift temporary travel restrictions issued over Efate and its offshore islands.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created challenges everywhere and Parliaments are no exception.

The SHEFA Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) has been activated to better manage and coordinate emergency response on Efate and its offshore islands, following the confirmation of the first confirmed coronavirus case in Vanuatu.

The movement of people on north Tanna to other parts of the island is temporarily restricted as seven people were sent to quarantine after reportedly getting into contact with occupants on a yacht that had arrived illegally in Vanuatu from French Polynesia.

A team from the WASH Cluster has been visiting businesses in Port Vila which include shops, restaurants, nakamals and any institution generating any form of revenue to ensure they are still complying with the hand hygiene order issued under the State of Emergency (SoE).

The 23-year-old who has tested positive for COVID-19 has been transferred out from the quarantine site to the Vila Central Hospital (VCH) Isolation Ward yesterday night. 

A total of 2,250 citizens and residents have been repatriated under the second repatriation phase so far.

The Vanuatu Police Force (VPF) has advised all interested candidates that have been selected for interviewing process for the police recruit position, that all interviews scheduled to take place in all respective provinces have been put on hold.

Air Vanuatu has announced it has taken the necessary steps to temporarily suspend its domestic passenger services in and out of Port Vila, in compliance with the directive issued by the National Disaster Management Office (NDMO) and Civil Aviation Authority of Vanuatu (CAAV).

The Ministry of Health (MOH) in support of the official statement of the Prime Minister confirmed that on November 10, Vanuatu had its first confirmed case of COVID-19.

At least 12 people who had been in close contact with the 23-year-old who tested positive for COVID-19 are now in quarantine.

Piles of donated medical supplies given through a partnership agreement with SHaRM Australian Foundation and the Rotary Club have been discarded since last year at the Epauto Multipurpose Hall in Port Vila.

The Government will be bringing back only final year students abroad for the Christmas holiday, under the second repatriation phase.

Since the border closure in March due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, the number of domestic violence cases in Vanuatu has surged and almost tripled compared to the average reports for previous years, Vanuatu Women’s Centre (VWC) Research Officer Sharon Frank revealed.

Below are some frequently asked questions Vanuatu’s Ministry of Health has received.

The whole island of Efate has been placed in a temporary lockdown as of yesterday afternoon. 

Four of Vanuatu’s own Science Lecturers that lecture at Vanuatu’s Institute of Teacher Education (VITE) in Port Vila, have engraved their names in the history of teaching science in the country by writing the country’s first “Holistic Approach to Addressing COVID-19 in Vanuatu”.

The Indo-Pacific region is the engine of the new global economy. Ensuring it can recover quickly will stimulate economic activity and restore jobs at home and abroad.

Returning citizens and residents will be meeting their own quarantine and transport costs once the Bill of the Public Health (Amendment) Act is passed by parliament, said Director of Public Health and Spokesperson on COVID-19 matters, Len Tarivonda.

The National COVID-19 Advisory Committee has recommended that only final year scholarship students abroad should be repatriated for this year’s Christmas break because it is expensive for the government to meet the quarantine cost for everyone twice in a short period of time.

Vanuatu’sMinistry of Health has joined its Pacific neighbours to applaud the Government of the Solomon Islands on the handling of its first COVID-19 case identified in quarantine.

The Australian Coalition Government did something very unusual in the aid budget last night. It increased foreign aid. It kept the headline aid figure at $4 billion (as per last year’s forward estimates), but then said it would spend another $211 million this year to respond in the region to…

Solomon Airlines yesterday announced a further two-month extension of the suspension of all scheduled international passenger flights, to 10 January 2021. The airline had previously suspended all scheduled international flying until 24 October, 2020.

A very encouraging and by far the best and most constructive National Business Forum (NBF) has just ended. It will form a solid platform for greater collaboration between our national political leaders, the Government and the private sector in the coming months under our new normal.

A 2-day National Business Forum to find proactive approaches on how to sustain the economy through the existing pandemic commenced in the capital yesterday.

Lockdowns across the world have pushed people into the privacy of their homes, unintentionally closing the shutters on violence against children. Children and young people are facing unprecedented threats to their childhoods and futures as a result of COVID-19.

While the Pacific awaits the return of visitors, strategic partnerships between regional agencies are working to ensure that the tourism and aviation sectors are adequately prepared for the reopening of borders for tourism.

Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) otherwise known as the ‘Silent Killer’ has been placed on the backburner while Vanuatu continues to keep, what it seems like its full attention, on COVID-19.

The previous article in this series looked at how much Pacific governments were spending in response to COVID-19. Of equal interest is the question of what they are spending on. As part of Devpolicy’s Pacific Covid Economic Database research, we have attempted to answer this question for the…