The Indian Weekender Friday, 23 October 2020

The Indian Weekender Friday, October 23, 2020 FIJI 15
PM reaffirms Fiji’s
commitment to NZ
Prime Minister Voreqe
Bainimarama says Fiji looks
forward to enhancing its
bilateral engagements with New
Zealand and in advancing regional
and global issues of common
interests to both countries.
He made the comments in his
congratulatory message to NZ Prime
Minister Jacinda Ardern, for the
historic victory in general elections.
Bainimarama says Fiji and NZ
share strong bonds of friendship.
He reaffirmed Fiji’s commitment
to work closely with NZ to
deepen bilateral relations and
strengthen the solidarity of the Blue
Pacific continent.
The Head of the Fijian
Government said that through the
strong leadership of Ardern, the
Pacific region will together become
stronger and more resilient when
overcoming the unprecedented
challenges currently faced globally.
The Prime Minister conveyed the
Fijian Government’s and the people
of Fiji’s best wishes to Ardern for her
re-election as the Prime Minister of
New Zealand and wished her every
success in her new term.
Fiji still keen for 'bula bubble'
with New Zealand and Australia
Fiji's government is pressing
ahead with its 'Bula Bubble'
for New Zealand and Australia
despite the two countries opting to
resume travel elsewhere.
The newly-appointed Cook Islands
Prime Minister Mark Brown said he
expects quarantine-free travel
with New Zealand to be in place
by December.
New Zealand's Prime Minister
said she expects her country will
soon be in a position to open up to the
Cook Islands.
Fiji Prime Minister Frank
Bainimarama said his country is
committed to making the 'Bula
Bubble' work with its major partners
in the region.
"Given that Fiji is Covidcontained,
given we have gone more
than 170 days without a new case of
the virus, given the exemplary job we
have done at managing our border
and given the economic urgency of
resuming flows of two-way trade
and tourism, we are keen to see
those discussions advance past the
exploratory phase and on to practical
progress as soon as possible."
Addressing retailers in Suva this
week, the prime minister assured the
business community the government
is in discussion with its regional
"border
closures
had cut off the flow
of revenue and the
ripple effects have
been felt across
every industry in
Fiji." He said Fijian
businesses are
suffering due to the
pandemic
development partners on resuming
travel. Bainimarama said Fiji was
expecting nearly one million visitors
to its shores this year.
But he said due to the Coronavirus,
"border closures had cut off the flow
of revenue and the ripple effects
have been felt across every industry
in Fiji." He said Fijian businesses are
Fiji Is Covid-Free, Confirms Dr Fong
Acting Permanent Secretary
for the Ministry of Health
and Medical Services, Dr
James Fong, has confirmed that the
two remaining COVID-19 patients
that were in isolation at the Lautoka
Hospital have been cleared of the
virus and discharged.
He confirmed that as of yesterday,
there was no active case of the virus
in the country.
“Today (yesterday) is day one that
we as a nation are without any active
case of COVID-19,” Dr Fong said.
“The remaining two patients had
been cleared on October 13 from the
Lautoka isolation facility and as of
today (yesterday) there are no cases
in isolation as they have all recovered
and cleared.
“We are happy that we are finally
able to discharge the last two cases
on Monday.”
Dr Fong has requested the public
to maintain vigilance and continue to
adhere to COVID-19 State measures
in place.
“We need to understand that
the risk still remains but they are
mitigated by our strong quarantine
measures.
“Fiji still faces the threat of the
introduction of COVID-19 into
the country and in order for Fiji to
survive we must allow our citizens
to come back and we need to allow
people who facilitate economic
recovery to come back.”
NZ Defence training team gets underway in Fiji
A
combined
training team from the New Zealand Defence
Force (NZDF) and Ministry of Defence will this week
begin working alongside Fijian counterparts in areas
ranging from basic hydrography to advanced combat first aid
as part of a new training initiative in the Pacific Island nation.
This is the first time that such a large group has deployed
to Fiji to team up to train, coach, mentor and embed alongside
military and defence counterparts.
Defence Advisor to Fiji Lieutenant Colonel Josh Wineera
said the COVID-19 environment had required a rethink of
engagement with military partners, particularly in the Pacific.
“The NZDF has well established health protocols and we
have reassured the Fijian Ministry of Health that our deploying
personnel will abide by regulations to ensure the safety of the
Fijian public,” LTCOL Wineera said.
“We have achieved two military activities this year that
have taken into account Fiji’s COVID-19 regulations. The first
was when Royal New Zealand Air Force aircraft delivered
humanitarian aid after Tropical Cyclone Harold in April and
suffering due to the pandemic.
Bainimarama said in particular the
"small businesses have bore a heavy
burden". He said the government had
expressed its interest to New Zealand
to resume regular travel.
However Bainimarama said until
Fiji's border reopens, "most business
revenues will not be what they used
to".
Meanwhile, last week, the
Australian government announced it
had finalised a deal for a limited
travel bubble across the Tasman that
would allow people to travel from
New Zealand to New South Wales
and the Northern Territory states
quarantine-free from 16 October.
But the New Zealand PM said
her country is still not ready to have
quarantine-free travel.
then in July, HMNZS OTAGO carried out a ‘no-contact’ fuel
stop while the ship was conducting joint fishery patrols with the
Fiji Navy,” he said.
“This combined training team represents the first faceto-face
contact between our nations this year and clearly
demonstrates the trust between our two militaries in
partnering for essential training.
"Working with our counterparts and growing capability
is something we really enjoy doing. We’re very pleased to
We owe a lot to our front-line heroes
to keep Fiji COVID-Contained – PM
Prime Minister, Voreqe
Bainimarama says with
global coronavirus infections
surpassing 40 million, most people
on earth live under constant threat of
infection from the deadly coronavirus
but fortunately that is not in Fiji.
While speaking to the frontline
workers at Nadi International
Airport today, Bainimarama says our
success in dealing with COVID-19
is owed to our nurses, doctors, lab
technicians and the members of our
disciplined forces who have kept Fiji
COVID-Contained.
Bainimarama says this pandemic
is the most sudden and devastating
global event in 100 years. He says
every nation was caught on their
heels but in those crucial early
months, Fiji was one of the few
which did everything right.
He says we have since achieved
the world’s most remarkable record
at containing this deadly disease.
Bainimarama says some countries
are COVID-free because they shut
their borders completely, even to
their own people, and never had the
coronavirus. He says Fiji actually
dealt with an outbreak and, together,
we beat it.
The Prime Minister says Fiji
systematically identified and
quarantined every known contact of
every single case in the country and
broke every chain of transmission.
He says even when Cyclone
Harold struck us smack in the middle
of our outbreak, the containment
campaign was not blown off course.
have been welcomed by the Government of Fiji and Republic
of Fiji Military Forces (RFMF) to assist in this way,” he said.
RFMF Chief of Staff Captain (Navy) John Fox said the
combined training team was the largest such contingent to
deploy to Fiji this year.
“When we first talked with the NZDF about the team it was
evident that this was a bold idea to support our capacity building
programme, especially as COVID-19 continues to be a major
global concern. But we worked together to get the Kiwis in and
the RFMF looks forward to the training and reaffirming our
defence partnership,” he said.
"We’re
very pleased to
have been welcomed
by the Government of Fiji
and Republic of Fiji Military
Forces (RFMF) to assist
in this way."
Bainimarama says through it all,
we have never turned our backs on
Fijians around the world.
He says with stringent infection
protocols in place, we have safely
repatriated our people without
risking public well-being.
The Prime Minister says we have
now gone 186 days without a new
case outside of a secure border
quarantine facility.
He says many of the measures we
implemented have been replicated
elsewhere such as mandating
quarantine for healthcare workers,
the use of disciplined forces to
monitor our border quarantine
facilities, and the mandatory testing
of those in border quarantine before
release.
He says we should not only be
proud of what we have done, but of
how we have done it.
Bainimarama says when people
are dealing with a stressful situation
like quarantine or isolation, that
quality of care means a great deal. He
assured the front-line workers that it
does not go unnoticed, and it will not
be forgotten.
The Senior National Officer for the combined
training team, Lieutenant Colonel John
Barclay, said everyone in the team
was excited about the initiative and
looking forward to getting under way
this week, having completed 14 days’
managed isolation in Fiji.