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Category: Public health

  • SODELPA leader blasts PM, Attorney-General over Fiji covid ‘recklessness’

    By Litia Cava in Suva

    Fiji’s opposition SODELPA leader Viliame Gavoka has condemned Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama and Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum for their “unimaginable recklessness” over the country’s covid pandemic crisis.

    The politicians should know “they are held responsible for every covid-19 death for not listening and not doing what is right,” Gavoka said.

    Fiji has reported a record 636 new positive covid-19 cases and six deaths in the last 24-hour period ending at 8am today.

    Gavoka said: “To the Prime Minister and the Attorney-General, this is the message — health first.

    “The economy is second and will rebound.

    “There is no balancing act between the two, as clearly evident by the disaster we have today.”

    Gavoka said “the disastrous situation with covid-19” was because of the “we know best attitude” and the recklessness on the part of the Prime Minister and the Attorney-General.

    “The current situation could have been avoided if the Prime Minister and Attorney-General listened to repeated calls for a national lockdown to contain the virus within a zone or border and carry out mass vaccination,” he said.

    “Instead, the government decided to allow people to travel through borders bragging about its protocols, recklessly taking huge risks at a time when cases were spiking. The permanent Secretary for Health keeps saying, “when people move, the virus moves”.

    Sayed-Khaiyum and Bainimarama did not respond to the statement made by Gavoka after a copy was sent via email yesterday.

    Litia Cava is a Fiji Times reporter. This article is republished with permission.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Fiji mortuary full, public frustration, confusion rife over covid-19

    RNZ Pacific

    Public frustration over mixed messages from the government is growing in Fiji as covid-19 continues to spread rapidly.

    The latest daily update saw another 352 new cases reported yesterday.

    The Health Ministry also confirmed three more deaths due to the coronavirus, bringing the toll to 33 – 31 from this latest outbreak that started in April.

    All three were unvaccinated and died at home or on the way to a health centre.

    On Sunday, the ministry reported a daily record 522 new cases and three deaths due to covid-19.

    Making the situation even more grim, is the main mortuary is full — and people are being told to make immediate plans to farewell their loved ones.

    Relatives have to make plans to uplift their deceased family members and arrange funeral rites.

    Infected people sent home
    With hospitals unable to cope, health authorities have sent many of the people infected with covid back home to isolate – more than 1000 of them.

    RNZ Pacific correspondent in Suva, Lice Movono, said people were getting more and more worried.

    “There are a lot of fearful people, so much anxiety and continuing distrust of the government, but the government is not coming out to explain itself very well and we haven’t seen our ministers, our Prime Minister, for a very long time now.”

    Movono said she had not been out of her house, even to shop, for almost six weeks.

    The opposition National Federation Party leader, Professor Biman Prasad, said that meant some were going to multi-generational, crowded households.

    “With the increasing number of cases our health systems are giving up. People with other kinds of ilness are being affected. They’re not able to get the treatment they ought to get,” he said.

    “People are dying on arrival, or people are dying before they even get to the hospitals.”

    NFP leader Biman Prasad.
    Opposition NFP leader Professor Biman Prasad … “People are dying on arrival, or people are dying before they even get to the hospitals.” Image: Alex Perrottet/RNZ

    Government urged to seek foreign help
    The deteriorating situation in the country is failing to sway Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama from his no-lockdown stance.

    In a bid to save the economy, the government is allowing some businesses to stay operational.

    So while Fiji’s Health Secretary is advising the public to stay at home, the Trade Minister is talking about retail businesses, restaurants and gymnasiums staying open as long as safety measures are followed.

    Dr Biman Prasad, a professor of economics, says the government’s mixed messages, and “business as usual” approach, has caused a disaster.

    “The situation is going to get worse and it is not too late for this government to change its strategy, to stop being arrogant about what they have decided before.

    “If you look at the numbers, which have risen exponentially, it’s only happened after the prime minister made the decision to open up the containment zones.”

    Dr Prasad is urging the government to request help from Australia and New Zealand in implementing a nationwide lockdown.

    He said that if the expense of catering for people in a lockdown was too much for Fiji, help must be sought.

    “Let’s ask Australia and New Zealand for help,” he said.

    The government has not responded to requests for comment.

    There are more than 600 areas of interest in the central division with one zone in the western division.

    More than 5000 people have been in isolation since the latest outbreak in April.

    Fifteen covid-positive patients have died from the serious medical conditions they had before they contracted the virus, the Health Ministry said.

    Fiji security forces monitor essential movement between red and green zones under Covid-19 response operations.
    Fiji security forces monitor essential movement between red and green zones under covid-19 response operations. Image: Lice Movono/RNZ

    Workers forced to show up amid outbreak
    Meanwhile, some Fijian workers have been forced to continue going to work despite the rapid spread of the virus in the wider community.

    A retail worker in Suva, who did not want his name used, said he still had to go to work, on reduced hours.

    The father-of-five added it was critical that he earned money to feed his family, even though community transmission was rife.

    “Numbers going up. Yesterday it was 500 (cases). Numbers keep going up but I don’t know what this f***ing government is doing. They’re not doing any nationwide (lockdown) We’re having a lot of pressure, you know, our families, no food. A lot of things, man.”

    The father-of-five said safety measures were being followed at his work.

    However public adherence to the safety measures remained mixed.

    This is not helped by slow communication from authorities over which areas have been designated red zones, according to Allen Lockington, a social worker in Lautoka who delivers food to families in need in informal settlements.

    “We just deliver the food, and people say, ‘we’ve been locked down’. We try to get out of there as fast as possible,” he explained.

    “The other thing: when we go to the informal settlements, and we see the people walking around with no masks and in groups, 10 or 20 all clustered together. And if someone should be sick there, no doubt it will spread like wildfire.”

    If there is a ray of hope for Fiji, it is that the vaccination rollout is progressing swiftly — more than half of the eligible population have had at least a first jab of Astrazeneca, while around 50,000 people are fully innoculated.

    But the delta variant of covid-19 is moving rapidly through Fiji, and calls for the government to exert some control on the spread of the virus by calling a nationwide lockdown are growing.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Fixing Crumbling US Schools Could Save Lives — and the Planet

    Randy Lemons, senior project manager for construction projects, secures a BARD HVAC unit in a kindergarten classroom at West Hollywood Elementary School on March 18, 2021, in West Hollywood, California.

    Before the coronavirus pandemic made airflow a life-or-death issue, ventilation experts rarely tested the air inside schools. That was probably a mistake, said Kevin Thomas, the business representative for the union representing ventilation workers in the Seattle area.

    “You don’t feel the CO2 levels going up, you just start to get tired,” said Thomas of Sheet Metal Workers Union Local 66, which represents heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) workers. “The temperature rises, and you just take off your sweatshirt.”

    Similar findings have been recorded by HVAC experts across the U.S. — perhaps not surprising in a country where about 36,000 schools have ventilation systems in need of attention. But replacing aging ventilation systems with new versions of the same out-of-date technology won’t be enough, warned Tony Hans, an engineer specializing in green buildings.

    “Most districts are still putting in HVAC systems that were invented and designed in the 1970s, and those are not going to get you to your health and wellness goals, or your carbon and energy-efficiency goals,” Hans said.

    And the systems that regulate airflow are just one of the dozens of facility improvements Hans thinks schools are about to have a “once in a lifetime opportunity” to fix. He sees the anticipated influx of federal funding through President Joe Biden’s American Jobs Plan infrastructure proposal as a rare chance for most districts in America to make their buildings both greener and cheaper to operate.

    “It’ll be the last time they get to touch their schools for a major overhaul for 40 or 50 years,” Hans said. “This is the opportunity to really do it right.”

    Judged by annual spending in public dollars, America’s K-12 school facilities are the second largest infrastructure expense in the country — only roads, rail lines and other transportation systems cost more — and repairing or improving them may offer a clear path to broad reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Taken together, school facilities emit about 72 million metric tons of carbon dioxide each year, the equivalent of about 18 coal power plants or 8.6 million homes, according to the climate advocacy organization Generation180.

    But much as the pandemic forced a reckoning about the physical condition of America’s classrooms, it may also have cleared a way for the federal government to rebuild them.

    Rep. Bobby Scott, a Virginia Democrat, is the lead sponsor of the Reopen and Rebuild America’s Schools Act, which would send $130 billion in federal money — $100 billion in grants and another $30 billion in bonds — to schools in need of repair over the next decade. Until the infrastructure compromise between Biden and moderate Congressional Republicans took it out on June 24, Scott’s bill had been incorporated into Biden’s mammoth American Jobs Plan. Scott said that funding is badly needed because otherwise school districts are essentially “on their own” to build and renovate buildings.

    “If we’re going to do anything about the school construction problem, the federal government is going to have to step up,” said Scott, who chairs the House Committee on Education and Labor. In an effort to stimulate a long-term shift in how schools are built and maintained, states would be required to kick in some money, too. The grants would be apportioned based on need. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said the Democrat-controlled House won’t take up the bipartisan deal until the Senate passes the spending bill that could include funding for school facilities.

    Beyond guaranteeing that American students and teachers have good air, federal funding could help protect the planet that today’s students will inhabit. Rehabbing or rebuilding worn-out school buildings, particularly those that run on fossil fuels, so that they need less energy to operate would cut greenhouse gas emissions.

    It would also cut costs. At present, energy is second only to personnel when it comes to schools’ budgets, said Laura Schifter, a senior fellow with the Aspen Institute, leader of the group’s K-12 Climate Action initiative, and a lecturer on education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. As much as a quarter of the energy districts pay for is wasted, primarily by inefficient HVAC systems and drafty buildings. Schools spend billions more than they need to on energy that doesn’t actually heat or cool classrooms, or power light bulbs computers, cafeteria refrigerators or copy machines. It’s simply lost to leaky windows, badly set thermostats and the like, wasted like water spraying out of a gash in a garden hose.

    Though poor record keeping makes it hard to quantify school facilities’ contributions to climate change, Schifter said schools could reduce their carbon footprint if they had government help with the upfront costs of efficiency improvements. Some fixes, like installing more efficient light bulbs, are relatively cheap, but bigger fixes, like switching from gas to electricity or adding geothermal heating, are beyond the reach of most communities, without federal support. And yet, those are the solutions that could get a school building to carbon neutrality or even zero out energy consumption.

    “There’s this huge opportunity,” Schifter said. Rehabbing schools creates jobs, reduces long-term costs and moves the United States toward meeting its climate commitments without reining in industry, she said. “This is just an investment that makes sense for the federal government.”

    Currently, there is no significant school facilities funding stream at the national level. School districts in nearly every state have to pay for new buildings or renovations independently, relying almost exclusively on bonds to be paid back with property taxes. Just 17 states help pay to maintain their schools, while 36 states make some money available to replace or build facilities. Aside from a handful of small, specialized programs, the federal government doesn’t help. Districts where property values are low, which disproportionately serve students of color, simply can’t raise the money.

    Federal money could correct the structural problem with school facilities financing and clear the way for healthier, more efficient school buildings, said Jeff Vincent, director of public infrastructure initiatives at the University of California, Berkeley’s Center for Cities + Schools. In states like California, where the state matches local money dollar for dollar, high-wealth districts get about eight times more state money per student than low-wealth districts, Vincent said.

    “The education community has been far more tolerant of terrible building conditions than they should be,” Vincent said. “There’s a little bit of a martyr syndrome, that a good teacher should be able to teach in a shoebox. And I appreciate that, but why should you have to? Why should children be forced to learn in those environments?”

    That American school buildings aren’t in good shape shouldn’t be news. A 1995 study by Congress’ research arm, the Government Accountability Office, found that 63 percent of students attended schools that needed an overhaul. Twenty-five years later, little had changed. A 2020 study by the same body found 41 percent of school districts reporting that most of their schools’ ventilation systems needed to be repaired or replaced. And many schools had critical structural problems; 10 percent of districts reported that most of their schools have walls or foundations that need work.

    Among the buildings federal investigators examined was a school in Rhode Island that was running a ventilation system using 100-year-old parts. Investigators found a New Mexico school that had spent $150,000 to replace a fairly new boiler, burned out by mineral-heavy water, but couldn’t afford to buy a filter to soften the hard water, likely dooming the newest boiler to the same fate as the one it replaced.

    In Michigan, investigators found a school still being heated by a boiler from the 1920s. The school had to keep an engineer on site to make sure the boiler, built when some students’ great-grandparents were children, didn’t explode. Because of the way school facilities are funded – maintenance is covered by some state and federal dollars, while renovations and new construction are not – the district can afford to employ the engineer, but not to replace the boiler.

    In some districts, school buildings are plainly dangerous. A 2018 Philadelphia Inquirer investigation found asbestos and lead paint, exposure to which has been linked to illness and brain damage, were prevalent in city school buildings. District leaders estimate it would cost billions to repair and replace broken buildings, a sum far beyond what the district could afford with no federal money forthcoming at the time. (Three years later, federal dollars might be the only money forthcoming, as the state legislature’s Republican majority recently blocked another effort by its Democratic governor to send more money to schools via a tax on wealthy residents.)

    Aside from on-the-ground investigations like the one pursued by the Inquirer, information about school building quality is hard to come by. That’s because, in most of the country, no one is even trying to track it, said Anisa Heming, director of the Center for Green Schools at the U.S. Green Building Council, a nonprofit that develops standards for building efficiency. As a result, there isn’t even an accurate count of the total square footage of classroom space in the country, Heming said. The best assessments of the physical conditions facing American schools come from the Government Accountability Office or the American Society of Civil Engineers, she added.

    The civil engineers recently gave America’s schools a “D+” in the trade organization’s 2021 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure and estimated that an additional $38 billion a year is needed to maintain the nation’s schools. The funding in the Reopen and Rebuild America’s Schools Act, which would represent the largest infusion of cash into the nation’s school buildings in more than 50 years, wouldn’t come close to fully meeting those needs.

    At tens of thousands of schools, simple steps can be taken toward efficiency, Heming said. Replacing incandescent and fluorescent lights with LEDs cuts electricity use while improving the lighting. Adding insulation, patching walls and fixing leaky windows can reduce heating costs, as can calibrating the existing systems so they work as designed.

    Thomas, the trade union rep, said most problems found by the workers surveying airflow in Seattle-area schools are easily fixed. Often, it’s as simple as correcting mistakes made by well-intentioned maintenance workers who’ve jammed air intake valves open or shut.

    Hans, the green buildings engineer who thinks now is the moment to invest in upgrading America’s school buildings, works for CMTA, an engineering firm in Kentucky that won international acclaim for building the nation’s first net-zero energy school in 2015. The firm is currently constructing an elementary school in Washington, D.C., that will have net-zero carbon emissions and energy use while meeting industry-leading health and safety standards. The new schools have an airy, futuristic esthetic, with lots of right angles, strategic shade and solar panels. They also look expensive.

    But Hans, a former member of a private school board in his hometown of Louisville, said school leaders looking to finance efficiency can now borrow against long-term utilities savings to defray up-front construction costs. They can basically use some of the money they’ll save on smaller utility bills to pay back the borrowed money during the first years of a school’s greener operations. And as taxes or surcharges are placed on fuels that contribute to climate change, limiting the volume of fossil fuels a school district consumes should result in even larger long-term savings.

    In some cities, students have led the charge to make schools “greener” and more efficient. Pushed by the student body, Salt Lake City’s school board recently committed to using 100 percent clean electricity by 2030 and to going carbon neutral by 2040.

    Salt Lake City is surrounded by mountains, which trap air pollution produced in the city. The city’s air is among the worst in the nation, on par with Los Angeles. And the burden of pollution falls more heavily on neighborhoods in the Valley that are home to more students of color, who represent a majority of the local school district’s enrollment. The district’s shift away from fossil-fuel powered heating and buses will help clear the skies for everyone, said Mahider Tadesse, an 18-year-old senior at the city’s East High School who advocated for the changes.

    “Once these schools adopt carbon neutrality, it’ll be cleaner air both for the kids living up in the rich, white neighborhoods and for the kids living in the more industrial half of Salt Lake,” Tadesse said.

    Greg Libecci, the school district’s energy and resource manager, couldn’t be more excited by the carbon-neutrality pledge.

    “I mean, holy mackerel, it’s why I got into this business,” said Libecci, a former AT&T salesman who joined the district in 2010.

    Salt Lake schools have been adding solar capacity for years; Libecci is excited to use the cost savings from those projects to further shrink the district’s environmental footprint. He’s particularly enthused about electric school buses that will park under a canopy roofed with solar panels.

    “This is happening,” he continued. “We have tremendous momentum. There’s very little that I see that can really trip this up.”

    Salt Lake and any other district in need of a little federal help may soon get it, if Rep. Scott has his way.

    Having just marked his 74th birthday, Scott noted that the elementary school he attended — Booker T. Washington Elementary in Newport News, Virginia — remains in use. “It’s been renovated, but I mean, really?”

    The stately brick building, built in 1928, is now a magnet school with a focus on marine sciences. Scott hopes that his former school building, along with thousands of others will soon be “brought up to educational standards.”

    “It’s an equal-opportunity action,” Scott said of the Democrats’ plan to set aside money to improve school facilities. “Money will go to the areas that are chronically under-resourced … As Martin Luther King said, ‘The time is always right, to do what’s right.’”

    This story about school buildings was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Frontline women: unrecognised leadership in Indonesia’s COVID-19 response

    Local government and civil society responses to the Covid-19 pandemic in Indonesia have been widely lauded in academic and popular media since the first Covid-19 case was confirmed in March 2020. Indeed local mitigation and healthcare responses have proven critical in the face of central government failures in many aspects of pandemic responses. What early studies have not shown however, has been the role that women have played in leading these local responses. My new study uncovered a disjuncture between men’s high representation in formal Covid-19 leadership and decision-making bodies, and women’s overwhelming domination of the daily work of pandemic leadership in both infectious disease mitigation and healthcare responses. While I focused on just one city in Central Java, we can assume that this division is mirrored in other parts of Indonesia and, indeed, in many parts of the world.

    The results of research published in my new report sheds light on why women are minimally represented in official Covid-19 taskforce structures while having overwhelming majority representation in the frontlines of emergency and long-term pandemic responses. In January and February 2021 I conducted fieldwork with a masters scholar in the city of Salatiga, Central Java, collecting data on women public servants’ leadership roles in pandemic responses. In this report I extend on previous research on pandemic responses at local level by applying a gender lens to examine why women healthcare workers and officials, who have limited roles and responsibilities on formal Covid-19 taskforces at the city-wide and subdistrict level, have played the critical roles in leading mitigation strategies at both levels.

    Click on the cover image below to download the full policy brief.

    Failure of Covid-19 pandemic taskforces at local level

    While national government regulations state that gender mainstreaming policies must be integrated into emergency and disaster response plans at the national and sub-national levels, women comprise only 7% of the national Covid-19 taskforce and 12% of, for example, the Central Java provincial taskforce. In the municipality of Salatiga in Central Java, gender representation in government is higher than the national average, however women still occupy a minority of positions in the highest echelons of the local government public service. This disparity had direct implications for the composition of Salatiga’s COVID pandemic taskforce where positions in it were allocated on the basis of structural positions within government without specific reference to gender. In the Salatiga city taskforce appointed in October 2020, women’s participation was 17% in a body of 12 members. The heads of strategic government departments, such as the heads of the regional police (Polres), the local military command base (Korem), the municipal police (Satpol PP), the Regional Planning, Research and Development Agency (Bappeda) and the National Unity and Political Department amongst others (Kesbangpol), are all headed by men and were automatically appointed to the taskforce. Despite violating gender mainstreaming principles, this local picture is typical of the situation across Indonesia both in elected government and amongst career public servants, with men holding a majority of higher echelon positions.

    Rapid Test facility at Pasar Senen Station. Image credit: Gaudi Renanda in Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)

    The Salatiga municipal taskforce is responsible for strategic pandemic mitigation policy and planning, cross-agency coordination, monitoring and enforcement of mitigation measures, budgeting and other resource allocations. Despite the assumed leading role of this male-dominated body, in practice it has been women that have principally led mitigation and healthcare responses, stepping up to fill gaps in formal leadership of pandemic mitigation measures.

    Women’s leadership in the pandemic

    In contrast to the city-wide COVID-19 taskforce, the Salatiga health department has a far higher proportion of women both in leadership roles as well as comprising the majority of healthcare workers. Overall women comprise 80% of the city’s health department workforce. At the community level, Salatiga’s healthcare response to COVID-19 was even more female-dominated. The directors of the city’s six community health centres (PUSKESMAS)  are all women, with women comprising up to 90% of the health centres’ workforce.

    In practice, pandemic responses not only in healthcare, but also in the critical area of infectious disease mitigation, were largely led by women from the health department, women staff of community health centres, and some acute care staff in the district and other local hospitals. The main weakness in pandemic responses identified by all those interviewed was the failure of the city-wide taskforce to provide leadership and direction. A health department official said that while government agencies have specific taskforce responsibilities in practice they run to the health department to find solutions. Women leaders working in healthcare at citywide and sub-district level argued that the citywide taskforce should be strengthened, to effectively monitor and evaluate the implementation of policies in the field, to supervise effective public communications including mitigation policies to the public, so that health services could prioritise deepening their knowledge of COVID-19 related health science and pandemic handling which is very dynamic and fast-developing.

    Banners communicate strategies for mitigiating COVID-19 spread. Image credit: Rebecca Meckelburg.

    The report shows that there were four institutions that were critical in frontline health care—the health department, community health centres, the district hospital and a special isolation facility; while the first two of these institutions were also critical in mitigation responses. Indeed community health centres (puskesmas) have been the backbone of Salatiga’s pandemic healthcare and disease mitigation strategy as the frontline for testing, tracing and supporting people infected with COVID-19.

    The strategic response of the health centre examined here was innovative, rapidly reorganising health centre workers into dedicated teams that manage COVID-19 patient work specifically and the remainder who continue to manage and provide general health services. At the community level, the community health centre head initiated cross-sectoral communication with sub-district stakeholders (with subdistrict government, police, military and local ward officials) and coordinated cooperation with community stakeholders, civil associations, religious groups and subdistrict government agencies.

    Women’s pandemic workloads

    National pandemic policy failures in Indonesia and many other countries have increased women healthcare workers’ paid and unpaid work burden. Much of the labour of women healthcare workers is not even visible let alone important in public policy– either in terms of the costs it imposes on a highly feminized workforce and society more generally, or the benefits it provides in terms of care work and social reproduction. The result is that the pandemic produced more complex work practices with higher workloads for women working at the frontline of the response, without additional human resources, while these women also had to deal more intensively with everything related to the pandemic in their domestic roles.

    Lab workers in the Bandung BioFarma facility in Indonesia examine vials that have vaccine vial monitor technology incorporated into their labels. BioFarma, Bandung, Indonesia. Image credit: Ümit Kartoğlu for VOA on Wikimedia Commons

    Most concerning is that these women hold significant knowledge through experience of managing this pandemic crisis. They know the shape of the COVID-19 pandemic and understand what practices work best—and what does not work—in mitigating the crisis. Yet their limited inclusion in formal structures with decision-making authority, continue to restrict women’s power to critique and shape political decision-making about priorities in COVID-19 pandemic responses.

    Related

    COVID-19, food insecurity and the resilience of indigenous women in Indonesia

    Protecting rural indigenous people’s control over food resources is linked to the wellbeing of migrant workers in the cities.

    Muntaza and Rizki Amalia Affiat 20 April, 2021

    What women contribute to pandemic leadership

    Scholars and advocates have argued for women’s participation in the design, implementation and monitoring of COVID-19 related laws and policies at all levels of government decision-making. My study shows that this participation is indeed necessary, not only to address the specific needs of women and girls in the pandemic, but, further, in order to draw upon the growing knowledge and experience of these women in developing timely pandemic strategies.

    Healthcare managers and frontline workers identified several areas that required serious and immediate action. First, there needs to be better coordination, leadership and implementation of official duties in the city-wide taskforce. Second, improved monitoring and enforcement of health protocols in workplaces, public spaces and approved events including weddings, public ceremonies and venues that facilitated public gatherings are required. Third, there must be monitoring and enforcement of movement restrictions and local regulations on work from home quotas, limits on numbers in restaurants, hotels and other venues and home isolation. Fourth, there needs to be more extensive trace and test capacity by expanding physical facilities to support expanded testing as the lynch pin of sound epidemiological monitoring of disease prevalence. This epidemiological monitoring would support the development of a road map to successful disease suppression.

    Local health departments and community health centres in Indonesia, run largely by women, have been a critical piece of infrastructure for Indonesia’s pandemic response. Both health department officials and health centre workers’ intensive community engagements have generated greater understanding of what COVID-19 is in local communities, driven coordination of cross-sectoral stakeholders where possible, provided active support for positive patients, and reduced community stigmatisation. Sadly, this critical role, as well as the knowledge and experience gained by these women, has not been acknowledged formally nor drawn upon as a critical resource in longer term pandemic planning and leadership. Ultimately, this failure to include these leaders undermines the capacity to provide well-coordinated wholistic responses to the COVID-19 pandemic at the local level, resulting in ongoing high levels of virus transmission and effectively extending the timeframe of the multiple crises resulting from the pandemic.

    The post Frontline women: unrecognised leadership in Indonesia’s COVID-19 response appeared first on New Mandala.

    This post was originally published on New Mandala.

  • Fiji GPs chief criticises ‘misconstrued’ video supporting conspiracy theories

    By Repeka Nasiko in Lautoka

    A video by a Fiji doctor on adverse side effects of the AstraZeneca vaccine has been misconstrued to support conspiracy theories and myths not supported by any scientific evidence, says Fiji College of General Practitioners president Dr Ram Raju.

    He said the college “does not condone any member spreading false information to the public”.

    He was commenting critically about the video made by Lautoka-based Dr Baladina Kavoa.

    “It is a time for all of our healthcare workers to unite and educate the public about the truth and dispel all fears,”Dr Raju said.

    “Doctors are seen to be community leaders who should therefore exercise extreme care and restraint in posting any news on social media.

    “The Fiji College of GP’s is fully behind the vaccination programme rolled out by the Ministry of Health and Medical Services and we support their efforts.”

    He said they had held many seminars on this subject well before the first covid-19 case was identified in March last year and all the doubts were dispelled.

    Vaccinations ‘can save lives’
    “At the moment, the covid-19 vaccination is the only method which can save lives,” Dr Raju said.

    “It’s just like giving vaccination for a host of other diseases to save lives, like measles, diphtheria, tetanus, pneumonia, hepatitis, etc.”

    He said there were some vaccination side effects that were to be expected.

    “Getting covid-19 is not a joke and these conspiracy theories need to be laid to rest.

    “By vaccinating, you are protecting yourself, your family and the population of Fiji.”

    • The Fiji Times did not publish any comment by Dr Kavoa.

    Repeka Nasiko is a Fiji Times journalist. Republished with permission.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Fiji reports record 522 new cases of covid-19 – three more deaths

    By Lice Movono, RNZ Pacific correspondent in Suva

    Fiji has reported 522 new cases of covid-19 in the last 24 hours – a record number of daily cases.

    The Fiji government has also confirmed three more deaths due to the coronavirus, bringing the toll to 30.

    The Health Ministry said that all three were unvaccinated and had died at home or on the way to a health centre.

    Two of the deaths had previously been under investigation to determine if the cause was covid-19.

    A fourth under investigation has been found to be caused by a pre-existing illness.

    There have now been 30 deaths due to covid-19 in Fiji, with 28 of these deaths during the outbreak that started in April this year.

    The ministry issued an official reminder that home therapy was not the right remedy for the coronavirus.

    Battled conspiracy theories
    As health authorities record 6091 cases since the delta variant outbreak began in mid-April, the country has battled conspiracy theories, alternative treatments and vaccine reluctance.

    “Steam therapy and drinking hot water are not the treatment for covid-19 and it does not protect one from contracting covid-19,” a government statement said.

    “Inhaling steam (kuvui) and keeping hydrated with warm drinks are commonly used as home therapy to provide relief from a congested nasal passage, and short term instant relief from symptoms of cold or inflamed sinuses.

    “They should not be taken as a treatment or protection from covid-19 infection.”

    The ministry said getting vaccinated and practising hygiene measures such as wearing a mask when people left home, washing hands frequently or hand sanitising, covering the mouth while coughing or sneezing and social distancing remained the best ways to stay protected against the pandemic.

    The measures also helped to stop the transmission of the virus from one person to another.

    In addition, the government has also reminded those who have been told to quarantine at home because they have come into contact with someone who is positive that they should do so for as long as they have been told to.

    Three deaths reported
    Health Secretary Dr James Fong said the three deaths reported today, a 93-year-old woman, a man, 60, and a 56-year-old woman, all from Lami, were unvaccinated and either died at home or on the way to hospital.

    Eight people who have died as a result of covid-19 in just over a month either died at home or on their way to hospital, prompting calls from the government urging people to get to health facilities once they experience covid-19 symptoms.

    “As expected, with the increasing cases numbers we are also seeing increasing numbers of people with severe disease, and more deaths in the Suva-Nausori containment zone. It remains a serious concern that some people with severe disease come to a medical facility only in the late stages of their illness,” Dr Fong said.

    “And we are still sadly seeing people with severe disease die at home or on the way to hospital, before our medical teams have a chance to administer what could potentially be life saving treatment.”

    Fijian health authorities are running an average of 3144 tests per day and 10.4 percent of those are positive.

    Meanwhile, 317,461 adults have received their first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine and 52,001 have received their second dose. Health authorities still have to reach 91.1 percent of the 650,000 target population.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Sayed-Khaiyum leading Fiji into chaos, says women’s crisis centre leader

    By Litia Cava in Suva

    The Fiji Civil Society Organisation Alliance for COVID-19 Humanitarian Response has repeated a call for the resignation of the country’s Economy Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum.

    The alliance claims that he is taking the country into chaos and says it is deeply concerned about lives being unnecessarily lost as a result of the pandemic crisis.

    The call comes as Fiji has reported a record 522 new cases of covid-19 and three virus deaths for the 24-hour period ending at 8am today.

    Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre co-ordinator and human rights activist Shamima Ali said the government had full authority to conduct a nationwide lockdown to minimise the impact of the virus.

    “While it is the people’s responsibility, the authority lies with the government,” she said.

    The government had full authority to lockdown and to regulate and also had the resources to call these things.

    “And so they must take the bigger bit of the responsibility,” she said.

    ‘You must step down’
    “And so I am asking the Minister for Economy to do the honourable thing and resign.

    You must step down because you are taking this country into chaos and you know if we are not careful, a lot more of our people are going to die unnecessarily.”

    Questions emailed to Attorney-General and Economy Minister Sayed-Khaiyum yesterday about the comments made by the CSO Alliance remain unanswered.

    The alliance also said Fijians were confused with the mixed messages from government.

    It questioned the recent announcement by Commerce, Trade, Tourism and Transport Minister Faiyaz Koya to reopen restaurants, food courts, and gyms on Viti Levu.

    Ali said it appeared the government was prioritising the need to keep the economy afloat rather than the lives of people.

    “We have a very small population,” she said.

    ‘What are we waiting for?’
    “What are we waiting for? Half a million of us to die before we are going to wake up to the reality of what is happening?

    “There seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel, nothing is under control.”

    Ali said the call for covid-19 patients to safely isolate themselves at home was also an issue of concern.

    “We are telling them to self-isolate at home. What are we telling them?

    “Do we have a set of guidelines?”

    Health Secretary Dr James Fong said the Ministry of Health had a protocol to support this “but we are also working with CSOs and other government ministries to increase the capacity for facility-based isolation”.

    A full breakdown of areas of interest has been published online on the Ministry of Health and Medical Service’s covid-19 dashboard and on the Fiji Government Facebook page.

    Approximate locations of cases are at this link: http://bit.ly/3vE2ZBb

    Litia Cava is a Fiji Times reporter. This article is republished with permission.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Fiji suffers 5 more deaths, 404 new cases in covid crisis

    RNZ Pacific

    Fiji has recorded another 404 new cases of covid-19 and five deaths in the 24 hours to 8am on Friday.

    Most of the new cases are from the western and central division where the capital Suva is located, according to the Health Ministry.

    Health Secretary Dr James Fong said two of the latest cases were detected at a quarantine facility in the northern port of Malau on Vanua Levu, the second largest island.

    He said the pair were repatriates from the Central Division and are now in isolation.

    Of the five deaths, one was certified to have been caused by covid-19, one caused by other illnesses while three are being investigated.

    One of those who died was a 72-year-old woman from Kinoya, near Suva, who was presented to the FEMAT field hospital with severe respiratory distress.

    “She had been sick at home with cough, fever and shortness of breath for at least five days before coming to the hospital. She died at the hospital that same day. She was not vaccinated,” Dr Fong said.

    Twenty-five people have so far died from covid-19 in Fiji since March 2020, 23 of them since May 5 while 12 other covid-positive patients had died from other conditions that they had.

    There are now 4243 positive people in isolation, 5183 cases since the delta variant outbreak started in April 2021. Since March 2020, Fiji has recorded 5253 cases with 970 recoveries.

    Dr Fong said a full breakdown of areas of interest has been published online on the ministry’s covid-19 dashboard and on the Fiji government Facebook page. The approximate locations of the new cases are also at this link: http://bit.ly/3vE2ZBb

    NFP leader Biman Prasad.
    Opposition NFP leader Professor Biman Prasad … government has “completely lost the plot”. Image: Alex Perrottet/RNZ

    NFP slams goverment strategy
    The government has “completely lost the plot and meekly surrendered its innocent citizens to the throes of a deadly pandemic”, said the opposition National Federation Party leader Biman Prasad.

    In a statement, he said two ministries – Health and Trade – had contradicted each other in terms of the government’s mitigation strategy to tackle covid-19 in Fiji.

    Dr Prasad, who is a professor in economics, said Dr Fong had repeatedly emphasised the need for people to stay at home and only move around for essential services like purchasing food, medicine, seeking medical treatment or exercise.

    “But the Trade Minister Faiyaz Koya has revealed they are looking at reopening not only retail businesses but allowing restaurants, food courts and gymnasiums to be fully operational under ‘covid-safe’ measures,” the NFP leader said.

    “This is the height of incompetency in a government whose leader has said in Parliament that ‘nobody gives a damn’ when asked by NFP parliamentarians to reset their moral compass and show leadership.”

    Dr Prasad said the opposition would continue to call for the government to change its strategy.

    Positivity rate up
    Meanwhile, the country’s daily test positivity rate is now at 9.5 percent and continues on an upward trend. The World Health Organisation (WHO) threshold is at 5 percent.

    However, Dr Fong said the ministry’s vaccination campaign continued to gain ground with 309,293 adults (53 percent) now inoculated with the first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine and 49,876 had received their second doses.

    “The ministry repeats its advice that Fijians take the necessary steps to protect themselves until an adequate number of people are protected through vaccination.

    “Fijians also need to be particularly vigilant in protecting people who are most vulnerable to severe infection including the elderly, people with weakened or compromised immune systems, and people suffering from other serious conditions.”

    Fiji facts

    • 25 deaths due to covid-19 in Fiji (since March 2020), 23 of these deaths were during the outbreak that started in April this year.
    • 12 positive patients who died from conditions that they had before they contracted the virus.
    • 52 new recoveries reported since the last update.
    • 4243 active cases in isolation.
    • 5183 cases during the outbreak that started in April 2021.
    • 5253 cases in Fiji since the first case was reported in March 2020, with 970 recoveries.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Java, Bali brace for covid emergency lockdown as Indonesia’s cases surge

    The World Health Organisation says the delta variant of covid-19 has been identified in 85 countries and is spreading rapidly in unvaccinated populations around the world. Indonesia registered a record 21,807 cases on Wednesday. Video: Al Jazeera

    Asia Pacific Report newsdesk

    Indonesia’s most populated and popular islands are bracing for emergency lockdown measures from this weekend, with President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo touting the inevitability of shifting policy amid soaring covid-19 cases, reports The Jakarta Post.

    The country recorded another record-breaking day with 21,807 new covid-19 cases and 467 deaths in a day, according to official figures published on Wednesday.

    That brings the country’s overall caseload to 2,178,272 and deaths to 58,491 – a toll among the highest in Asia.

    The numbers are widely regarded as conservative estimates because of severely inadequate testing outside Jakarta.

    The Health Ministry also reported alarming bed occupancy rates (BORs) in Jakarta, Banten and West Java – all of which have surpassed 90 percent – followed by Yogyakarta and Central Java at 89 and 87 percent, respectively.

    President Widodo said the restrictions would begin tomorrow — Saturday — and last until July 20 on the most populous island of Java and the tourist island of Bali, reports Al Jazeera.

    In a televised address yesterday, Widodo said: “This situation requires us to take more decisive steps so that we can together stem the spread of covid-19.”

    Worst-hit nation
    The details of the measures were being announced later, he added.

    Indonesia is Southeast Asia’s worst-hit nation with new cases topping 21,000 every day. The surge has overwhelmed hospitals and resulted in a shortage of oxygen in the capital, Jakarta.

    A government document said the new restrictions aim to cut daily cases to below 10,000, and will include work-at-home orders for all non-essential sectors and the continued closure of schools and universities.

    The document also said public amenities like beaches, parks, tourist attractions and places of worship must close, while restaurants can offer only take away or delivery services.

    Constructions sites can continue operating as normal, however.

    Udayana University Professor Gusti Ngurah Mahardika, a virologist on the island of Bali where the number of daily confirmed cases have more than quadrupled in two weeks, said the proposed restrictions were not enough.

    “I have seen the new emergency measure but I am sceptical. We need a lockdown but the problem is there is just no money to keep people at home,” he said.

    Infection rate far higher
    Infectious disease experts say modelling suggested Indonesia’s true daily infection rate was at least 10 times higher than the official count.

    “The problem in Indonesia is that testing rates are very low because only people who present themselves at hospitals with symptoms receive free tests. Everyone else has to pay,” said Dr Dicky Budiman, an epidemiologist who has helped formulate the Indonesian Ministry of Health’s pandemic management strategy for 20 years.

    “Based on the current reproduction rate in Indonesia that has climbed from 1.19 in January to 1.4 in June, I estimated there at least 200,000 new cases in the country today.

    “But if I compare that with modelling by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in Seattle, it is much higher, about 350,000 new infections per day. That’s as high as India before the peak.”

    A virologist in Java advising the Ministry of Health, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media, said the virus spread so quickly because many Indonesians exhibiting symptoms of covid-19 prefer to stay home.

    “When we see the hospitals full with patients it’s only the tip of the iceberg because only 10 to 15 percent of sick people in Indonesia go to hospitals,” the virologist said.

    “The rest will stay at home and self-remedy because they prefer to stay with their family.

    “This has happened since the start of the pandemic but with the delta variant now becoming dominant it’s a much more serious problem because the secondary infection rate in households for the delta variant is 100 percent.

    “That means if one member of a household is infected, they all get infected. But as their symptoms become worse and people experience trouble breathing, we expect many more people will come to hospitals, like what we saw in India.”

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • PNG in bid to stem rising covid-19 cases by tightening air travel rules

    By Rebecca Kuku in Port Moresby

    As the delta variant of covid-19 spreads to more than 96 countries, Papua New Guinea has put in tighter measures that include all incoming passengers and crew to be vaccinated before boarding any international flight entering the country.

    Police Commissioner David Manning, who is also Controller of the PNG COVID-19 National Pandemic Response, released the new control measures yesterday.

    Under the updated measures, all incoming passengers and crew should be vaccinated before boarding an international flight coming into PNG.

    And the mandatory quarantine period has been extended to 21 days for all incoming travellers, with covid-19 tests to be undertaken on the first, seventh and final day of quarantine.

    Scheduled flights can continue as normal, while unscheduled flights require approval from the Controller.

    Manning said the new measures were aimed at preventing the spread of the covid-19 delta mutation.

    PNG is struggling with widespread community transmission of the virus, with more than 17,000 confirmed cases and rising.

    ‘Serious threat’
    “The delta strain of covid-19 poses a serious threat to our country, and we will do everything we can to prevent or delay its arrival and spread,” Manning said.

    Institute of the National Affairs executive director Paul Barker has welcomed the new measures, saying that the restrictions on international flights are really wise — but they also needs to apply to the West Papua border with Indonesia.

    “The variant is dominant in India and has become dominant in a short time in Fiji, UK, and South Africa, and is spreading fast in US, and lately has slipped into UK,” he said.

    “It’s 60 percent more infectious than the UK variant, which was 60 percent more infectious than the original virus we have here.”

    “It’s good to keep it out as long as we can, but it’s already spreading fast in Indonesia, so it will be challenging.”

    Overseas destinations
    Meanwhile, Air Niugini has also released a statement advising passengers on Air Niugini international flights departing from overseas destinations on or after Friday, July 2, 2021, and entering PNG, must now :

    • Be fully vaccinated against covid-19, and provide evidence in the form of a vaccination certificate at check-in;
    • Quarantine for 21 days on arrival in PNG at the individual’s expense;
    • All previous approvals for home quarantine, or shorter quarantine period, have been revoked by the Controller; and
    • All previous Controller approvals for a person to enter PNG as required under previous Measure 2 remain effective, but are now subject to the new direction.

    There are no changes to the requirements for international passengers departing from PNG.

    Air Niugini continues to operate six flights a week to Brisbane, one flight to Sydney, four flights per week to Singapore, and twice weekly flights each to Manila and Hong Kong.

    Rebecca Kuku is a senior journalist with the PNG Post-Courier. This article is republished with permission.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Pleas for Fijians to take covid-19 more seriously with 274 more cases

    RNZ Pacific

    Health authorities in Fiji have confirmed 274 infections of covid-19 in the 24-hour period ending at 8am today as they have warned people to take the pandemic more seriously.

    Health Secretary Dr James Fong told a media conference last night he was back in quarantine after coming into contact with a positive patient.

    Earlier this month, Dr Fong was in isolation as a potential primary contact for another medical team member.

    Making reference to the ministry’s online map, he said Viti Levu was now in a situation of community transmission where there are cases throughout the Central Division.

    “As we’ve made clear throughout the week, our cases are climbing and we are expecting that the daily case average will continue to rise, including an increase in individuals suffering severe covid-19,” Dr Fong said.

    He said they had also identified a new area of concern in Rifle Range, Lautoka. This had followed a cluster of new cases stemming from a birthday party with more than 14 people in attendance from various locations in Lautoka.

    No new deaths
    Dr Fong said while there were no new deaths to be reported, there had been three tragic deaths during this latest outbreak which started in April.

    He said the deaths had occurred before the medical teams could offer any treatment. One patient died at home and two others were declared dead-on-arrival at the hospital.

    Dr Fong urged anyone experiencing flu-like symptoms to “please report to your nearest screening clinic now.”

    The health ministry’s highest priority is to provide life-saving treatment, he said.

    “Over the next few weeks as the case numbers increase, the isolation facilities will get tested. Only severe cases will be at the isolation facilities, others will be in-home isolation.”

    Provided groceries
    Those in-home isolation will be provided groceries and other essentials, Dr Fong said.

    “165 is the number to call if you need to be taken to a Covid-19 Care Centre. A new intermediate facility is being set up at the National Gymnasium in Suva.”

    Dr Fong said they are bracing for a wave of new cases in the next four to five days.

    “The ideal place to get swabbed if you believe you have symptoms is the screening clinics.”

    While 50 percent of the target population had received their first jab, Dr Fong said he was concerned at those still opposing the vaccine.

    “This is a new vaccine because this is a new disease and it can defeat this virus.”

    Official announcements
    Meanwhile, all official announcements regarding the government’s covid-19 response efforts will only be made by the Health Ministry.

    This comes amid wide circulation of a fake advisory of the change in curfew hours via social media.

    In a statement, the National Disasters Management Office (NDMO) urged the public to disregard all false and misleading posts as such.

    “Stop spreading misinformation and continue to adhere to all covid-19 safety measures and protocols in place,” the NDMO said.

    Earlier, police issued a statement saying any changes made would be announced to the public.

    As for now, the curfew from 10pm to 4am (local time) for containment zones and some parts of the country remains unchanged, police chief Rusiate Tudravu said.

    Plea to follow rules
    He pleaded with the public to continue to adhere to the health restrictions in place.

    More than 1,000 people, mostly intoxicated, have been arrested for breach of curfew and health-related restrictions.

    Tudravu said some people were arrested for drinking kava.

    Police will continue to monitor and enforce these restrictions, he said.

    Fiji now has 3,503 positive people in isolation with 19 deaths reported since this latest outbreak started in mid-April.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.


    This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • NZ has managed to dodge the covid-19 bullet, again. Here’s why

    ANALYSIS: By Arindam Basu, University of Canterbury

    New Zealand has avoided community transmission, even though an Australian visitor tested positive for the delta variant which dominates Australia’s latest covid-19 outbreaks.

    New Zealand health authorities were quick to react, isolating and testing contacts and suspending travel. Of the traveller’s 2,609 contacts, 93 percent have now returned a negative test result.

    But given the delta variant is up to twice as infectious as the original strain, the unique nature of how covid-19 spreads also partly explains why New Zealand has managed to stave off an outbreak.

    Among the factors that influence viral transmission, one variable is often overlooked: the K factor. This describes how a virus spreads in clusters and through superspreading events, and we now know that this is an important aspect of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes covid-19.

    We have become more familiar with the R numbers — R0 which describes the number of people an infected person will pass the virus on to, on average, if no public health measures are in place, and Re which describes the infection rate once public health measures like masks, social distancing and vaccines have been introduced.

    But early studies and modelling of how covid-19 spreads highlight the K factor, suggesting only about 10-20 percent of infected individuals account for 80-90 percent of the total number of cases. This implies that most infected people don’t pass the infection on to others.

    Few people do most of the spreading
    This pattern of spread triggers superspreading events. It is quite possible the infected tourist belonged to the 80-90 percent of non-spreaders and did not pass the infection on to many other people. He himself may have been infected in a superspreading event in Australia.

    New Zealand has successfully eliminated covid-19 and doesn’t have any known clusters, thanks to comprehensive border control and precautionary measures. This means any new cluster or community transmission chain would need several rounds of introduction to get started.

    You can think of it in this way. If 10 infectious people arrived in the country, only one would be likely to spread the virus to levels that could outpace contact tracing.

    This was shown in a study that used genomic data to trace how the first wave of community transmission took hold in New Zealand. The data not only confirmed the effectiveness of quick public health interventions, but also highlighted the importance of the K factor.

    The effective reproductive number, Re, of New Zealand’s largest cluster decreased from 7 to 0.2 within the first week of lockdown. Similarly, only 19 percent of virus introductions into New Zealand resulted in ongoing transmission of more than one additional case.

    Vaccination and public health measures
    Beyond these considerations, as the infected individual had already received a single vaccine dose in Australia, it is possible this reduced the virulence of the infection.

    It is also possible that some of the people he interacted with had also already received one or two doses of the vaccine. We can’t rule out a vaccination effect in keeping the infection mild, or even breaking the chain of transmission.

    What can New Zealand do to keep the delta variant at bay? The initial success of New Zealand’s elimination strategy helped to reset the country to a situation where all new variants are imported rather than mutating from existing local infections. This is critical as the rate of mutation is higher during periods of uncontrolled spread. That didn’t happen in New Zealand.

    New Zealand’s strict border control and quarantine, even during times of zero community transmission, helped to keep new variants at bay.

    Looking ahead, several issues will be critical. New Zealand needs to continue border control measures to keep overseas infections in check. We will need to negotiate travel bubbles based on developments in other countries.

    I also support calls for an accelerated vaccination rollout and the continued use of masks in public places and transport. Last but not least, using the contact tracing app is critical here as it helps “reverse contact tracing” to rapidly identify superspreading events.The Conversation

    Dr Arindam Basu is an associate professor of epidemiology and environmental health, University of Canterbury. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Four new deaths as Fiji records hundreds more covid cases

    RNZ Pacific

    Four more people have died as Fiji recorded 312 new covid-19 cases in the 24 hours ending at 8am yesterday.

    The Health Ministry said 295 cases were from the Lami-Suva-Nausori containment zone, while 17 were from the western division.

    There are now 3306 active cases in isolation with 21 deaths reported since March 2020 – 19 from this latest outbreak in April this year.

    Fiji’s Health Secretary Dr James Fong said four cases were from the existing containment zones of Tramline and Qima Settlement in Nadi.

    He said one was a corrections officer from Suva undergoing quarantine at the Tavua Prison compound as part of the essential movement from the red zone to the green zone when they tested positive.

    This is similar to the prison officers who had tested positive on Monday in Rakiraki.

    The second case in Tavua lives at the Public Works Department quarters and his source of transmission is under investigation.

    Four new Lovu cases
    “There are four new cases from Lovu, Lautoka, with unknown sources of transmission. Seven contacts of these Lovu cases have also tested positive.

    Dr Fong said out of the 295 cases in the Lami-Suva-Nausori containment zone, 165 were from existing areas of interest and 10 from new clusters: Cost U Less supermarket, Golden Manufacturers, and the Kidney Foundation of Fiji.

    “The remaining cases are contacts of known cases, cases that were seen in screening clinics and were swabbed, and cases under investigation to determine possible sources of transmission.”

    According to Dr Fong, the four deaths were two women and two men, all in the capital Suva – none of them had been fully vaccinated against covid-19.

    A 68-year-old man from Toorak was admitted to the Colonial War Memorial Hospital (CWMH) after presenting to the FEMAT field hospital on June 24 in severe respiratory distress. He tested positive for covid and died on Monday in the intensive care unit.

    The man’s doctors had determined his death was caused by the coronavirus, Dr Fong said. He was not vaccinated.

    The 39-year-old woman from Knolly St had tested positive and was admitted to CWM Hospital after having severe symptoms of covid-19 at home including shortness of breath.

    Not fully vaccinated
    She died on Monday in the intensive care unit, and her doctors had determined that her death was caused by covid-19, Dr Fong said, adding that the woman had received her first dose of the vaccine this month but was not fully vaccinated.

    A 70-year-old man from Veisari in Lami was in respiratory distress and died at the Raiwaqa Health Centre on Monday night.

    “According to protocol, he was swabbed and tested positive. His doctors have determined that his death was caused by Covid-19. He was not vaccinated,” Dr Fong said.

    Fiji health officials Dr Aalisha SahuKhan, left, and Dr James Fong.
    Fiji health officials Dr Aalisha SahuKhan (left) and Dr James Fong … two women and two men, all in the capital Suva – reported to have died, none of them had been fully vaccinated against covid-19. Photo: Facebook/Fiji govt

    The other death was an 82-year-old woman of Qauia in Lami that was previously under investigation to determine if covid-19 was the cause of death.

    “She had pre-existing medical conditions, was bedridden, and died at home. According to protocol, she was swabbed and tested positive for covid-19.

    “She was declared dead by the attending medical officer and after investigation it has been determined that the cause of death was covid-19. Other members of her household have also tested positive. She was not vaccinated.”

    A 54-year-old male, who tested positive for the virus at the CWM Hospital, was admitted for a severe pre-existing non-covid illness.

    Dr Fong said his doctors had determined that he had died due to that illness and not from covid-19. He was not vaccinated.

    Fiji’s government, which has ruled out imposing a national lockdown, is prioritising vaccination in its response to the outbreak.

    Around a third of Fiji’s population of 900,000 have had at least a first dose of a covid-19 vaccine.

    Quick facts

    • 312 new confirmed covid-19 cases
    • 17 cases in the Western Division
    • 295 cases in the Lami-Suva-Nausori containment area
    • 21 reported deaths due to covid-19 in Fiji
    • 19 of those deaths were recorded during the outbreak that started in April 2021
    • Nine covid-19 positive patients died from pre-existing non-covid related illnesses that they had been receiving treatment for at the CWM Hospital
    • Since the last update, 29 new recoveries have been reported
    • A total of 3306 people are active cases in isolation
    • There have been 4074 cases during the outbreak that started in April 2021
    • Fiji has recorded a total of 4144 cases since the first case was reported in March 2020, with 808 recoveries.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Adopting basic income scheme in Wales could improve health for all

    A new report published today (22.06.21) by Public Health Wales suggests that introducing a basic income scheme in Wales could be a catalyst for better health and well-being outcomes for all.  

    The idea of a universal basic income, a form of social security aimed at providing all people with a set amount of regular income, for example £500 a month without means testing, has existed for centuries but never been fully implemented.  

    Based on international evidence, key findings of implementing such a scheme identified potential positive effects on people’s health, including:  

    • Increasing income security: Money worries are one of the most common triggers for anxiety and depression 
    • Reductions in child poverty and improvements in other childhood outcomes: Research shows that children are able to learn better at school when they have enough to eat and a stable family life 
    • Improved educational attainment: Children from a financially secure background are more likely to stay in education longer or return to education   
    • Additional money for those more likely to be in lower paid jobs such as disabled people and women from deprived areas, leading to a higher standard of living 
    • Greater food security and improved nutrition 
    • Housing quality improvements and more affordable housing options 
    • A decrease in hospital admissions particularly in relation to accidents, injuries and mental health conditions 
    • However, when schemes were stopped, the positive effects diminished and in some cases well-being worsened from before the scheme was implemented. 

    The report ‘A basic income to improve population health and well-being in Wales?’ considers a range of evidence and explores the potential impacts on health and well-being. It also looks into the different approaches to policy design and implementation internationally.   

    Report author Adam Jones, Senior Policy Officer for Public Health Wales, said: “How well a basic income scheme works would certainly depend on how it’s designed and delivered. 

    “How much income it provides, who is eligible for the income, and how long the scheme is designed to last are all crucial factors in determining outcomes. 

    “The protection and improvement of Wales’ health is at the heart of everything we do at Public Health Wales. Evidence suggests that members of society would benefit from an income that supports their health and wellbeing and allows them to contribute to society and flourish.  

    “A form of basic income is one of the options government can consider to achieve this. It is a radical concept that has yet to be adopted formally by any country but parts of Canada and Finland have trialled schemes, with different approaches, with both seeing positive impacts upon health and well-being in the population. These included people reporting better mental well-being, with improved satisfaction in their lives, and less mental strain, depression and loneliness. Recipients also noted improvements in income security, educational uptakes, and community participation.  

    “However this is based on limited evidence, and there are many areas where there is minimal or no change in outcomes. Basic income as an idea and as a proposal is as multi-faceted and complex as the issues it needs to address.” 

    The report identifies options for policy-makers who are thinking about basic income, such as carrying out economic modelling, placing health and wellbeing as a core aim of any scheme, and carrying out feasibility studies to understand how basic income could be introduced in Wales. 

    The post Adopting basic income scheme in Wales could improve health for all appeared first on Basic Income Today.

    This post was originally published on Basic Income Today.

  • PNG, Fiji situation ‘going backwards’ over covid, warns NZ health expert

    By Christine Rovoi, RNZ Pacific journalist

    Papua New Guinea and Fiji are among several countries in the region going backwards in their fight against the covid-19 pandemic and this is concerning, a New Zealand epidemiologist has warned.

    PNG has recorded more than 170 deaths and more than 17,000 cases of the virus. In Fiji, 17 people have died and more than 3,000 active cases are in isolation.

    Professor Michael Baker, from the University of Otago, said the figures coming out of both countries are a concern.

    “One of the added worries with PNG is it’s by far the largest population [9 million] and many people are living in informal settlements in crowded conditions with multi-generational families,” he said.

    “They are very vulnerable to this infection so it’s very concerning. This is the same in Fiji.

    “We are seeing a pattern across the Asia-Pacific region now where countries that have managed the pandemic extremely well and have succeeded in eliminating the virus. Fiji did extremely well and had no transmission for over a year.

    “But now what we’re seeing is an outbreak of the more infectious Delta variant and we will see more infections of the virus unfortunately.”

    Professor Baker said this had put a lot of strain on the health control measures in these countries, due to fatigue and complacency, after more than a year of battling the virus.

    Fiji’s government has refused to impose a national lockdown with Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama saying this would cripple the economy and impact on Fijian jobs.

    A health worker takes a swab from a man at a covid-19 testing centre in Port Moresby.
    Professor Michael Baker says the Delta variant has put a lot of strain on the health control measures in countries such as PNG and Fiji, due to fatigue and complacency, after more than a year of battling the virus. Image: RNZ/AFP

    Fiji positivity rate at 7.4 percent
    The country’s covid-19 positivity rate is now at 7.4 percent while the World Health Organisation (WHO) threshold is at five percent.

    “That’s a grim situation and is very concerning,” Professor Baker said. “They are on that exponential part of the curve and that means essentially uncontrolled transmission of this virus and we know all the consequences that go with that.

    “That also means with more positive cases will come deaths. Typically there’s a mortality risk depending on the ages of the population of half a percent to one percent.”

    In PNG, where testing remains limited, the government has been reluctant to force wider communities into lockdowns and so instead has urged the public to adhere to the preventative measures of the “niupela pasin” or new normal.

    With vaccine hesitancy still rife in PNG, health authorities there appear to be banking on the natural protection of a youthful population to mitigate some of the impacts of covid-19.

    “But one of the real worries is that when you exceed the capacity of the health system to manage these ill people, they start dying from quite preventable causes. Some people are seriously ill and it will be hard to look after them even with the best intensive care.”

    He said a change to policy settings is needed so people are more prepared for any outbreak.

    Concern for Asia-Pacific region
    “I’m concerned for the whole Asia-Pacific region because they are all going backwards at the moment and having trouble containing this variant [Delta]. Just look at the terrible situation in Fiji.

    “This is a real lesson for us in New Zealand that everything we are doing now we are going to have to do better if we are going to stay ahead of this more infectious variant.”

    Professor Baker’s number one piece of advice is to stay home if you have cold or flu symptoms and get tested. After that, wearing masks indoors at level two and compulsory scanning are critical.

    There have been calls to ramp up covid-19 vaccinations on both sides of the Tasman.

    An alert level 2 was raised in New Zealand last week after an Australian tourist who had visited tourist attractions, restaurants and bars in Wellington between June 18 and 21 tested positive for the Delta variant of the virus on his return home.

    Wellington moves back down to alert level 1 from midnight Tuesday, and cabinet has agreed in principle to resume travel with some Australian states from Sunday: Victoria, South Australia, ACT and Tasmania.

    The travel pause with NSW, Western Australia, Northern Territory and Queensland is set to continue beyond Sunday. Cabinet will review the settings for those states on Monday, July 5, and announce a decision on Tuesday, July 6.

    University of Otago epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker
    University of Otago epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker Image: Luke Pilkinton-Ching/University of Otago​

    Call to ramp up vaccinations
    The Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum worked on protocols and advice for the governments on the trans-Tasman travel deal, with tourism worth more than NZ$5 billion to the two countries.

    Co-chair of the forum, Ann Sherry, believes the attitude of some towards vaccination is putting everyone at risk.

    She said both countries need to give their vaccination rollouts “some acceleration”, especially as Australia and New Zealand have countries nearby with connections.

    “I watched imagery last night of fighting in Fiji over someone who’d stolen crops,” she said.

    “Now when you get to the stage in your near neighbours where people are fighting over food because they’re so dependent on tourism — so dependent on both Australians and New Zealanders coming in and out, and them getting work in both Australia and New Zealand — can we really in good conscience sit by and watch that happen?

    “There’s a bigger world around us. A lot of places very dependent on Australia and New Zealand in the region, and they’re doing it tough at the moment.

    “Their economies are collapsing and that puts a lot of vulnerable people at risk. And I personally don’t think we should just sit by, watch that happen and say, ‘we’re okay, so see ya’.”

    19,000 cases in French Polynesia
    Meanwhile, French Polynesia’s covid-19 tally has breached the 19,000 cases mark after another nine infections were recorded over the weekend.

    Daily infection numbers have, however, plummeted to single digits after peaking in November when French Polynesia had the fastest propagation rate of the pandemic outside Europe.

    Six cases of the Delta variant were discovered last week and more than 60,000 people have been fully vaccinated.

    Since last week, there is no curfew. Gatherings continue to be restricted to a maximum of 25 people and in enclosed spaces, masks have to be worn by people aged 11 and older .

    The territory was reopened to quarantine-free travel for vaccinated visitors from the US last month.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    Health workers in Fiji
    Health workers in Fiji … the country is struggling with the latest Delta variant outbreak. Image: RNZ/Fiji govt

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Fiji reports 241 new covid cases and one death – pastors warned

    By Timoci Vula in Suva

    Fiji has reported 241 new cases of covid-19 infections and one death in the 24-hour period ending at 8am yesterday.

    Health Secretary Dr James Fong said 5 cases were prison officers from Suva who were undergoing 14 days quarantine at the FSC Compound in Rakiraki as part of essential movement from red zone to green zone when they tested positive.

    The remaining cases were from the Lami-Suva-Nausori containment zone.

    He said there were 106 cases from existing areas of interest, and 17 from the following new areas of interest:

    • Fiji Times
    • Food City Suva
    • Matanisivoro Settlement
    • National Kidney Centre-Nadera
    • Suva City Council, and
    • Tamavua-i-Wai.

    “The remaining cases are contacts of known cases, cases that were seen in screening clinics and were swabbed, and cases under investigation to determine possible sources of transmission,” Dr Fong said in his covid-19 update last evening.

    He said the new covid-19 death was a 50-year-old man from Newtown – believed to have died at home and was declared dead on arrival by doctors at the Valelevu Health Centre.

    “He was reported to be in severe respiratory distress before death. According to protocol, he was swabbed at the health centre, and tested positive. His death has been classified as a covid-19 death by the doctors at the health centre,” Dr Fong said.

    “He had received the first dose of the vaccine early this month. He was not fully vaccinated.”

    Dr Fong said another death that was previously reported to be under investigation had also now been classified by doctors as as a covid-19 death.

    He said the 62-year-old man from Grantham Rd had presented to the FEMAT field hospital in respiratory distress and died on the same day.

    “He had been having respiratory symptoms, including shortness of breath, for at least a week before presenting to FEMAT.

    “According to protocol, he was swabbed and tested positive for covid-19. He was not vaccinated.”

    Church warns pastors on vaccine messages
    Meanwhile, The Fiji Times reports that the Methodist Church has warned its leaders that it would take action against those influencing church members not to get vaccinated.

    Speaking during a virtual meeting regarding the church’s stand on covid-19 on Thursday, the church’s general secretary, the Rev Iliesa Naivalu has reminded pastors that they were answerable to the church.

    Naivalu has also called on them to refrain from circulating baseless videos being circulated on social media.

    Naivalu reminded pastors that they had a duty to preach about goodness and life to those under their charge.

    Timoci Vula is a Fiji Times reporter. Republished with permission.

    Fiji covid-19 statistics 28-06-21
    Fiji covid-19 statistics updates for 28 June 2021. Graphic: Fiji govt

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Fears of covid-19 ‘time bomb’ of sorcery accusations, violence in PNG

    SPECIAL REPORT: RNZ Pacific

    WARNING: This article contains graphic content that some readers may find disturbing.

    Unexplained deaths spark sorcery claims, torture and murder, as fears build of a Covid-19 ‘time bomb’ in Papua New Guinea.

    When a young boy died suddenly in Tatape Village in Papua New Guinea’s highlands, his relatives said dark forces were at work.

    Four women were accused of using sanguma — a local term for sorcery or witchcraft — to kill the child.

    Sergeant Daniel Olabe from the Hela Police Command alleges the boy’s father and others led their tribesmen to where the women were selling baked flour in a local market.

    “Eventually they got one of the ladies… and tortured her,” he said.

    “They hung her up, tied her arms and legs, beat her and started cutting her really badly.

    “They did it until 10pm and she died eventually.”

    Her dismembered body was left beside a road some kilometres away.

    A video of the torture and murder shows a crowd of people watching on.

    There have so far been no arrests in relation to the murder, with police saying suspects have fled into nearby bush and mountains, and fighting between groups in the aftermath has made it difficult to go into the area.

    The case is one of a string of sorcery-accusation killings across PNG in recent months.

    While many parts of the country have a long history of belief in sorcery, what concerns authorities is that many recent killings have occurred in regions where there isn’t a tradition of witchcraft.

    “This torturing and killing is very serious to us, it’s like a first of its kind to us,” sergeant Olabe said.

    In another case in the same month, a man was killed by a mob in Daru after being accused of using sorcery.

    “Sorcery-related killing is unheard of in Daru Town,” Daru Police Commander Inspector Soiwa Ricker told local daily newspaper The National.

    How traditional beliefs turned into murder
    Accusations of sorcery usually follow a sudden or unexplained death, with a grieving village becoming convinced someone among them is to blame.

    An accusation can swiftly end in torture, reprisals and lynchings.

    But Ruth Kissam, an advocate and expert in the field who works with local NGO the Tribal Foundation, said the violence did not have a cultural background, even in areas where belief in sorcery was traditional.

    “Sorcery-accusation-related violence picked up about 10 to 15 years ago,” she said.

    “Culturally, there is a deep belief in sorcery in many parts of Papua New Guinea, but it was never violent.

    “The belief system was sorcery against sorcery, and mostly it was believed that the village sorcerer was a man.”

    Kissam said now the people generally accused were women, often those who were already marginalised or vulnerable and were “easily targeted”.

    “Now the dynamics have changed, it’s become more about power plays,” she said.

    Highlands women make a stand sorcery-related violence
    Highlands women make a stand against the killing of another victim of sorcery accusation-related violence. Image: RNZ

    Con artists’ claim they can identify ‘witches’
    Kissam said the horrific violence being seen had “absolutely nothing to do with culture” and instead was “a law and order problem that is arising from a broken health system”.

    She believed disenfranchisement among people who were unable to get adequate healthcare and left school with no jobs to go to was contributing to the problem.

    And increased connectivity in PNG, through new roads and easier travel, has also been attributed with spreading sorcery beliefs into regions where it isn’t traditional.

    Another major concern has been the rise of people called glassmen, or glassmeri for women, who claim to be able to identify a witch.

    The Tribal Foundation warned a recent parliamentary inquiry into gender-based violence in PNG they were partly responsible for spreading sorcery into new areas.

    “We have people who are glassman and glassmeri who will go into the community and they are profiteering off their [claimed] special ability to say who in the community is the sanguma [or witch],” Tribal Foundation director Gary Bustin said.

    “These are just con artists profiting from torture.”

    It had become a profitable business model for the glassmen, who asked for payment from a community to identify a “witch”.

    Coronavirus could be a sorcery ‘time bomb’
    There are also concerns that deaths related to covid-19 could lead to an increase in sorcery accusations — and one such case has already been recorded.

    A community health worker in the town of Goroka contracted Covid-19 and died at home earlier this year.

    “The family in his tribe said the wife used sorcery to kill her husband, so the community got hold of the lady, stripped her naked and tortured her with hot irons,” local MP Aiya Tambua said.

    Someone alerted the police to the lynching as it was in progress. Before officers arrived, the woman was thrown off a bridge.

    She survived but Tambua said while the woman was in hospital, her daughter was also attacked and needed to be rescued by police.

    “[The hospital] found that the mother is covid positive and the child is covid positive and the father died from covid-19,” he said.

    Kissam said covid-19 was a potential “time bomb” for sorcery-related violence.

    A woman at a market in PNG
    A woman at a market in Papua New Guinea … an aggressive education campaign explaining the science of the pandemic is needed. Image: Koroi Hawkins/RNZ Pacific

    “Covid poses a very critical risk right now,” she said.

    There are reports of “countless” accusations of sorcery following suspected covid-19 deaths, but the case in Goroka is the only confirmed act of violence so far.

    Kissam warned that an accusation was still a mark against someone and that a “build-up” of accusations could see people attacked later, especially when covid-19 was out of the headlines.

    She said the PNG government needed to run an aggressive education campaign explaining the science of the pandemic.

    Why won’t police intervene?
    In the wake of the horrific murder of the woman in Hela, PNG’s Parliament is asking questions.

    A newly formed special parliamentary committee on gender-based violence has written to the country’s Police Commissioner, asking for information about the investigation and potential arrests.

    The letter, written by the committee’s chairman Charles Abel also highlights concerns that the police response to sorcery-accusation violence is “often insufficient”.

    Papua New Guinea police
    Police in PNG are poorly resourced, and there have been past protests at the patchy law and order. Image: Johnny Blades/RNZ

    He said the committee had been told “police [were] not attending cases in a timely manner and little or no action [was] being taken to investigate or arrest alleged perpetrators”.

    A shortage of police in PNG can make investigating the cases difficult, especially as officers are often met with armed and violent community members. PNG’s police-to-civilian ratio is about one officer per 2000 people.

    “Most of the police are in urban centres and some of them are guarding the mines, they’re attached to the resource sector,” Kissam said.

    “The police could be one [officer] in a catchment of area of 20,000 to 30,000 people.”

    Amid the focus on better enforcing existing laws, there are also calls to introduce new legislation specifically targeting glassmen and glassmeri.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Fiji police arrest six teenagers among 56 caught in covid curfew crackdown

    By Talebula Kate in Suva

    Six teenagers were among 56 people arrested by Fiji police in the past 24 hrs for failure to comply with curfew orders.

    Acting Commissioner of Police Rusiate Tudtavu said the Southern Division recorded 29 arrests, 16 of them for social gathering while the remaining 13 were for loitering during curfew hours.

    He said out of the 13 arrests, five were teenagers ranging from 14 to 17 years.

    ‘In the Eastern Division a total of 10 arrests were made and all were alcohol related,” Acting Commissioner Tudravu said.

    “Five people were arrested at Vuci and three at Naduri Road Nausori for drinking alcohol while two were arrested for being drunk and loitering during curfew hours,” he said.

    The acting commissioner said 17 people had been arrested in the Western Division.

    He said six reports were recorded in Rakiraki for drinking liquor and those arrested included a 17-year-old youth.

    ‘Drunk and loitering’
    “Three people were arrested in Ba for being drunk and loitering during curfew hours,” he said.

    “In Nadi, a 24-year-old was arrested for being drunk and incapable at Valenimasima while a 65-year-old farmer was arrested as he was driving without any pass during curfew hours.

    “Five people were arrested for social gathering as they were drinking liquor along the Namoli seawall in Lautoka.

    “The arrest of the six juveniles is worrying and we are again urging parents and guardians to be vigilant and aware of your children’s activities.

    “Children need constant guidance so they are not caught up in regrettable situations that could tarnish their future.”

    262 new covid cases
    Meanwhile, Fiji recorded 262 new cases of covid-19 in the 24-hour period ending at 8am today with 43 cases from six new areas of interest, The Fiji Times reports.

    Health Secretary Dr James Fong said in his covid-19 Delta variant update this afternoon that five cases were known contacts of cases from the Nawakalevu containment zone that had been undergoing 14-day quarantine in Nadi facilities.

    He said three were contacts from within the existing Korovou cluster, while the remaining 254 cases were from the Lami-Suva-Nausori containment zone.

    Dr Fong said 113 cases were from existing areas of interest in this zone, and 43 were from the following new areas of interest:

    • Jittu Estate
    • MV Liohona Shipping
    • Milverton Rd
    • Natogadravu
    • Waikete Village
    • Nauluvatu Village

    RNZ Pacific reports that a total of 3521 cases had been recorded since the April 2021 outbreak.

    Fiji’s positivity rate, now 7.4 percent, continues to climb further up from 5 percent, which according to the World Health Organisation’s criteria published in May 2020, means the epidemic is not under control.

    Talebula Kate is a Fiji Times reporter. Republished with permission.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Covid-19: ‘We’re not in the clear yet’, epidemiologist warns NZ

    RNZ News

    It will take a few more days before New Zealand can be said to have dodged a bullet over the latest covid-19 scare, an epidemiologist says.

    University of Otago epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker told RNZ Sunday Morning it was a close call.

    “We’re not in the clear yet. That will take another few days of no cases.”

    He said the visitor — who was in multiple indoor venues with hundreds of other people — had the more infectious Delta variant of covid-19.

    “This could have turned into multiple super-spreading events.”

    He said the case of the tourist exposed “major gaps” in the system.

    “A major mode of transmission is by aerosol. The virus doesn’t care about the 2-metre rule. We know it only takes fleeting contact indoors to get this infection.”

    Upgrade needed
    Baker said counterparts abroad were saying New Zealand needed to upgrade its approach to dealing with covid-19.

    “The virus has changed markedly and our response needs to change with it.”

    He said the Pfizer vaccine would help put the country in a more “secure situation when our population is highly vaccinated later this year”.

    “We need to upgrade the measures we take when there is concern about local outbreaks anywhere in Australia.

    “One of the obvious lessons from this is to just look at our criteria for suspending travel from the hot spots in Australia or anywhere and do it more quickly.”

    Other measures like pre-departure testing could be included for New Zealanders stuck in Australia.

    He said the new variants of the virus were “unforgiving”.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Wellington travellers to Rarotonga offloaded ‘in error’ over covid scare

    By Emmanuel Samoglou in Avarua, Cook Islands

    Cook Islands Te Marae Ora Ministry of Health has apologised to passengers who were offloaded in error on an Air New Zealand flight to Rarotonga on Thursday (Wednesday, Cook Islands time).

    The government said 13 passengers were offloaded off the flight after it was discovered they had originated from Wellington.

    In a statement last night, the government said the passengers were offloaded at the request of Te Marae Ora Ministry of Health, which made the decision after the Wellington region moved into alert level 2 when it was discovered a traveller from Sydney visited the New Zealand capital and later tested positive for covid-19.

    No community cases have been reported in New Zealand since the Sydney traveller visited Wellington. However, New South Wales health authorities have reported 33 new cases in the past 24 hours, taking the total of the Delta variant alert cases to 82 since June 16 and warnings of a greater partial lockdown.

    The Cook Islands ministry did not specify how many of the 13 passengers were offloaded in error.

    Yesterday Health Secretary Bob Williams defended the decision, saying it was in line with the government’s “precautionary approach” as well as Wellington Airport having been listed as a location of interest.

    “I make no apologies for taking this decision,” Williams said.

    Apology for ‘stress, uncertainty’
    “I do apologise to the passengers who were offloaded in error and for the stress and uncertainty it caused all off-loaded passengers.

    “I also apologise to those visitors currently in Rarotonga who have had their holidays temporarily disrupted – sometimes in the middle of the night – so that members of my staff could swab them. These tourists have mostly been 100 percent supportive of our efforts and for this I am extremely grateful.”

    Williams said he was grateful for the co-operation of resort and private accommodation people who worked with the ministry and assisted with locating and getting messages to their guests.

    Cook Islands News reported TMO’s response was applauded by many in the industry following Wellington moving to alert level 2, however one accommodation provider said they were concerned about possible interactions between the Wellington-originating passengers and others at Auckland Airport prior to boarding for Rarotonga.

    “What happened effectively on Wednesday was that the people from Wellington mixed and mingled with other people at the departure lounge at the airport,” the accommodation provider said.

    “Potentially you could have had a whole plane infected.”

    Williams said 124 people had been tested during 24-hour period ending Thursday afternoon, all having returned negative result.

    Unlikely last disruption
    “This will likely not be the last time travel under the Quarantine Free Travel arrangement between New Zealand and the Cook Islands is disrupted. Disruptions do need to be factored into everyone’s plans”.

    In a release, the ministry said officials are presuming the Australian case has the Delta variant and that he likely contracted the virus in Sydney. On Thursday, parts of the city have moved into lockdown after another 22 cases were confirmed.

    The ministry is asking any passengers who Te Marae Ora has not tracked down and who have visited a location of interest are asked to call health officials as soon as possible.

    All visitors were also asked to complete a health declaration form and the arrival cards truthfully.

    “Our systems have been tested again this week and have worked but we have also learned from this test and will be making some adjustments to our processes,” Williams said.

    Te Marae Ora said it was continuing to monitor the situation in Wellington.

    Republished with permission.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Fiji covid-19 death toll still climb – woman dies at 34 as crisis grows

    By Lice Movono, RNZ Pacific correspondent in Suva

    Three more people with covid-19 have died in Fiji in the last 24 hours — one of them the youngest patient since the pandemic reached the country in March 2020.

    There have been 14 deaths from covid-19 and 12 were from this outbreak alone while 8 covid-19 positive patients have died from pre-existing illnesses.

    Fiji’s total case count of the current outbreak of the Delta variant of covid, which began in mid-April, now stands at 2363 after another 215 cases were recorded between 8pm Thursday and 8am Friday morning.

    Fiji’s test positivity ratio is now 6.3 percent.

    Health Secretary Dr James Fong announced there had now been 3063 cases since March 2020 and 2993 of these was from the last eight weeks alone.

    Two of today’s deaths were of covid positive patients who were under investigation to determine if covid-19 was the main cause, or if it was accelerated death.

    However, the latest to die from covid was a 34-year-old woman from Nadawa, a suburb 10km outside of Suva who was declared dead on arrival at the Emergency Department at the Colonial War Memorial Hospital (CWMH).

    No pre-existing medical conditions
    The woman had no known pre-existing medical conditions and had not been vaccinated.

    Only three of today’s new cases are from outside of the Central Eastern division, two cases are from the district of Nawaka in Nadi, and one is a nurse at the Natabua Quarantine Facility in Lautoka.

    The remaining 212 cases are from the capital Suva and adjacent towns Lami, Nasinu and Nausori.

    While there are 101 cases from existing clusters, 18 cases are from new areas — the Flour Mills of Fiji, a large manufacturer of food items; New World Supermarket in Nasinu; the Police Medical unit in Suva; and the Our Lady of Nazareth home for retired nuns in Wailoku, outside Suva.

    “The 7-day average of new cases per day has increased to 203 cases per day or 230 cases per million population per day. Our daily testing numbers have remained at a high level, and yet our test positivity continues to increase,” Dr Fong said.

    “All the evidence is that there is widespread community transmission in the Lami-Suva-Nausori containment zone.”

    There are also clusters in Naitasiri and one cluster in Korovou. There continue to be cases reported in Nadi, but so far they are from within the containment zone in the Nawajikuma, Nawakalevu, and Tramline containment area.

    “The remaining cases are contacts of known cases, cases that were seen in screening clinics and were swabbed, and cases under investigation to determine possible sources of transmission.”

    Meanwhile, the MOH has administered first doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to 46 percent of Fiji’s adults, which is 272,354 people, and 6.5 percent, or 38,031 people, are now fully vaccinated.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Indonesia vs covid – ‘it’s like fighting a war without a commander’

    By Tsarina Maharani in Jakarta

    The initiator of the citizen-based reporting coalition Lapor Covid-19 (Report Covid-19), Ahmad Arif, says the Indonesian public is facing the covid-19 pandemic without any clear direction.

    There was no data transparency and inadequate information and education on the pandemic, Arif told a media conference.

    There was also no clear leadership in confronting the crisis.

    “Data transparency and information should be the main key for people’s understanding and response to the epidemic,” Arif said.

    “In our view there is no firm or clear leadership in the midst of this multi-disciplinary crisis”, he told the conference titled “Urging an Emergency Response: Prioritising the People’s Safety in the Midst of the Pandemic”, which was organised online last Sunday.

    “Moreover when hospitals are almost in a state of collapse like now, we don’t see any sense of crisis being shown by our leaders. It’s like we’re in a war without a commander-in-chief”, he added.

    According to Arif, the covid-19 situation in Indonesia was becoming increasingly worrying because of inconsistent government policies over the last 15 months.

    Ministry narratives vary
    He said that the policy narrative being conveyed by one ministry and the next could vary and often be the complete opposite.

    “This situation is a reflection of policy inconsistency on the pandemic by the government. For example, one ministry promotes [social] restrictions and health protocols, but another ministry promotes mobility,” he said.

    Arif also said that the government had failed to provide a social security net for people.

    “Like it or not, people who do not have the choice to work from home have to keep working outside the home with all of the associated risks,” he said.

    Arif said that many people did not believe in covid-19 and did not want to comply with heath protocols. This was also because of the government’s failure to convey a consistent narrative in the face of the covid-19 pandemic.

    “The national failure of providing a social security net has forced some people to continue working outside [the home] with all its risks.

    “The other factor, which of course exists, is many don’t believe in covid-10 and don’t comply with health protocols, but this is also related to a failure to communicate the risks we face,” he said.

    Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was “Lapor Covid-19: Tak Ada “Sense of Crisis” Pemimpin, Kita seperti Perang Tanpa Panglima”.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Fiji government must give ‘critical’ covid-19 crisis timeline, says lawyer

    By Felix Chaudhary in Suva

    The Fiji government and other health experts must give the country a covid-19 crisis timeline, says prominent lawyer Richard Naidu.

    He said they must provide some indication of how bad the pandemic would get and when they believed things would improve.

    Naidu said this was imperative because the future of Fiji was dependent on the information.

    “Businesses need to budget ahead,” he said.

    “Many employers want to spread their remaining cash to help their workers.

    “But they don’t know how long they will have to do it.

    “Welfare organisations need to plan their future support for people who have been kept away from their work and have no income.

    Schools need to plan
    “Schools and parents need to plan for how long students will not be in class.

    “Health professionals and family members need to plan for how to look after chronically ill people without access to normal health care.”

    Naidu said the Fijian people needed a best case and worst-case scenario.

    “And, of course, we need to know whose assessments they are,” he said.

    “The government’s experts may say one thing.

    “Other experts may take a different view.

    “We need to weigh the credibility of the information we are given.”

    Real-time information
    Naidu said getting real-time information from the Health Ministry was critical to decision-making “but equally important are projections for the next three-month and six-month periods”.

    He said Fijians needed to understand the possible number of cases the country would face and where they would peak.

    “We also need to understand when those numbers will begin to decline and when we will return to some level of community safety.”

    Health Secretary Dr James Fong did not respond to the concerns raised by Naidu.

    RNZ News reports that the Fiji government has announced that it was too early to say if the coronavirus would be an endemic disease in the country.

    This comes amid 12 deaths and more than 2000 infections recorded since the latest outbreak started in April. Prior to this, there were two deaths and 70 cases in March 2020.

    Felix Chaudhary is a Fiji Times reporter. This article is republished with permission.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Fiji may be facing heavy covid disaster within month, warns health official

    By Michael Field of The Pacific Newsroom

    Fiji could face around 600 covid-19 deaths within about eight weeks, and 50,000 active cases, unless decisive government-led action is taken quickly on controlling the epidemic.

    Diplomatic sources have told Pacific Newsroom that increasing alarm in Australia and New Zealand has prompted their Suva diplomats to urge Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama to institute a month-long hard lockdown across Fiji.

    He and his associate, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, are refusing, claiming it will inflict severe economic damage.

    But that may be happening anyway and international aid bodies are quietly preparing for food shipments into Fiji, akin to cyclone relief.

    The looming covid disaster could be the largest public health crisis since the New Zealand ship Talune introduced H1N1 influenza into Suva in 1918, resulting in around 9000 deaths in a month or six percent of the population.

    Global models
    Since April 10, when covid Delta arrived in Fiji from India, via Singapore, its growth track has followed the global models.

    Government leaders knew what was coming, as Fiji’s Medical Services’ Head of Health Protection, Dr Aalisha Sahukhan, spelt out on June 23: “Today we have reported a record number of cases, and this has been happening regularly over the last week.

    “And the daily case numbers will only increase. What we warned would happen when this outbreak started around two months ago is happening.”

    The comment plainly implies that the mathematical warnings were not listened to.

    Dr Aalisha Sahukhan 240621
    Fiji’s Head of Health Protection Dr Aalisha Sahukhan … “What we warned would happen when this outbreak started around two months ago is happening.” Image: The Pacific Newsroom

    She was speaking as they reported 279 new cases of covid, taking the number of active cases to 2479.

    Active cases are, data shows, doubling every seven to eight days.

    The existing numbers, combined with the global experience, point to Fiji in early August having had 600 deaths and over 50,000 active cases.

    When speaking on Wednesday, Sahukhan said there had been 13 deaths due to covid-19 in Fiji, with 11 of these deaths during the outbreak that started in April.

    Infection rate
    She noted that the daily test positivity rate in Fiji had reached 4.9 percent. This rate measures the number of positive covid results for every 100 tests.

    It shows how well a country is testing and, taken with the number of confirmed cases, aids in understanding community spread.

    “We are just 0.1 percent below the 5 percent [World Health Organisation] threshold that indicates widespread community transmission,” she said.

    Dr Sahukhan said Fiji authorities were working on mathematical modelling to project how big the epidemic would be.

    “India at the peak of the outbreak that happened in May went to 280 cases per million population per day, the United Kingdom at the peak of their outbreak was at over 800 per million population per day,” she said.

    “Right now we are at 187 cases per million population per day, which is 166 cases per day.

    “If our daily cases rise to a peak similar to the UK, we should expect approximately 700 cases per day at a 7-day average.”

    She said they had to worry about the severe cases that required hospitalisation and deaths.

    “As the cases have risen, it has largely overwhelmed our contact tracing capacity in the Lami-Suva-Nausori zone.

    “This has happened in every other country that has faced this number of cases relative to their population.”

    Suva covid clusters 230621
    Covid cases in Suva as at 23 June 2021. Image: Fiji MOH

    Next wave
    What comes next, the next wave, was most concerning.

    “The wave of people with severe illness requiring hospitalisation and the deaths that will come with it,” she said.

    “We have just started to see the beginning of that wave now.”

    The wave would crash on to medical facilities.

    “Our hospitals are not overwhelmed.”

    But as they fill with covid patients, other sick people would not get care.

    “We have seen this happen in other countries.”

    Behind the scenes Fiji’s problem is being made worse by the appalling rates in frontline workers.

    Nearly half of the Navy now has covid, for example. Large clusters are occurring among police stations and units.

    Many frontline workers are known to be wearing their protective gear wrongly, and many believe their first dose of vaccine is offering protection from covid when it is not.

    Fiji data follows others
    Statistical data seen by government officials and Pacific Newsroom are showing that Fiji’s covid growth is accurately following pathways set by other countries. For local Fiji reasons — from villages spread on Viti Levu to island scattering — the situation may be worse.

    Fiji covid statistics 230621
    Fiji covid statistics as at 23 June 2021. Graphic: Fiji MOH

    These factors, Fiji officials are being told, is also why covid will not achieve vaccine inspired herd immunity in Fiji.

    Population density could leave Fiji with chronic covid for years to come.

    Making matters worse is the way covid has forced the closure of facilities at various times.

    These include the Colonial War Memorial Hospital (CWMH), the Queen Elizabeth Barracks (which was providing frontline troops), naval vessels and the Ministry of Health Incident Management Team and warehouse.

    Other hospitals and health centres hit include those at Valelevu, Raiwaqa, Makoi, Kamikamica and Nadi.

    Republished from The Pacific Newsroom with permission.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Covid infections in Fiji soar with record 279 cases – four deaths

    By Timoci Vula in Suva

    Fiji has reported its highest daily total of positive covid-19 infections with 279 cases reported as of 8am today as the outbreak continues to soar.

    The ministry has also reported four deaths attributed to the virus.

    Health Secretary Dr James Fong announced these figures in the covid-19 update this evening.

    He said of those cases, 46 are from existing containment zones or quarantine facilities in Nadi.

    That includes 22 from Nawajikuma, 8 from Tramline, and 16 are close contacts in quarantine facilities.

    He said the remaining 233 cases are from the Lami-Nausori Containment Zone, and 196 cases of which are from existing areas of concern.

    “That means they are either from known clusters or they have a potential link to an existing case,” Dr Fong said.

    “All 279 of these new patients are currently in isolation at home or in a facility.”

    Details on four deaths
    For the four deaths, Dr Fong said the first two deaths were announced yesterday as being under investigation to determine if they were caused by covid-19.

    He said the first was a 57-year-old male who was admitted to the Colonial War Memorial Hospital (CWMH) for a pre-existing non-covid medical condition, and he tested positive during his admission.

    “The second was a 66-year-old female who was declared dead on arrival to the emergency department at CWM Hospital. In accordance with protocol, she was swabbed, and tested positive for covid-19.

    “Their doctors have now confirmed that covid-19 caused the deaths of both these individuals,” Dr Fong said.

    The third death, he said was a 62-year-old male from Nausori who was referred to the CWM Hospital yesterday from Nausori Health Centre in severe respiratory distress.

    “He had obvious signs and symptoms of severe covid-19 and he tested positive later in the day.

    “Despite the efforts of the medical team at CWM Hospital, he died late yesterday afternoon.

    Fourth death
    “The fourth death is a 77-year-old female who had been admitted at CWM Hospital for a pre-existing non-covid medical condition.

    “She tested positive during her admission and died today. Her doctors have confirmed that she died due to covid-19.”

    Dr Fong said there were nine other patients admitted at CWM Hospital with severe cases of covid-19, and one of those patients was a 30-year-old with no pre-existing illness.

    Republished from The Fiji Times with permission.


    This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • NZ’s capital moves to covid alert level 2 after Sydney tourist scare

    RNZ News

    The Wellington region moved to alert level 2 at 6pm today after an Australian tourist who visited the New Zealand capital on the weekend tested positive for covid-19 on his return to Sydney.

    Wellington, Wairarapa and Kāpiti Coast are now at alert level 2 until 11.59pm on Sunday but the rest of the country remains at alert level 1.

    Cabinet is expected to review the alert level settings again on Sunday.

    The Sydney man and his partner flew into Wellington on flight QF163 arriving in the capital shortly after midnight on Saturday and returned to Sydney at 10.13am on Monday.

    Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said in a briefing this afternoon the man had worked at a healthcare centre in Bondi where a positive covid-19 case was seen and the information suggests that it is likely he was infected before travelling to New Zealand.

    The man had one dose of AstraZeneca vaccine about 10 weeks ago and thoroughly used the Covid Tracer App while in New Zealand, Hipkins said.

    When the person left Sydney there were only four community cases of the virus, though that had since grown significantly. Because of the links to Bondi, New Zealand officials are working under the assumption they have the Delta variant.

    Quarantine-free travel paused
    Quarantine-free travel with New South Wales had already been paused at 11.59pm last night, for at least 72 hours, but that was before officials were notified about the positive case.

    The Wellington covid-19 scare. Video: RNZ News

    Alert level 2 means people can go to school and work but should follow public health measures and consider others around them.

    • If you are sick, stay home. Do not go to work or school. Do not socialise.
    • If you have cold, flu or covid-19 symptoms, call your doctor or Healthline on 0800 358 5453 and get advice about being tested.
    • If you have been told to self-isolate you legally must do so immediately and call Healthline on 0800 358 5453 for advice on testing

    Alert level 2 conditions also mean no gatherings of more than 100 people, strict rules on hospitality and social distancing.

    Testing centre booked out as demand spikes
    The Ministry of Health advises people who have been at locations of interest in Wellington to call Healthline, but this afternoon an answering machine stated that due to “exceptional call volumes” the call could not be answered telling callers that further information was available online.

    People on social media have been complaining about extremely long wait times if they do get through.

    A central Wellington covid-19 testing site in Taranaki Street this afternoon prioritised people with symptoms or who had been at locations of interest today.

    At times today there were up to 100 people queuing from Taranaki Street around the corner onto Arthur Street, and dozens of cars were driving through the testing clinic.

    Many were being turned away if they had not booked a time to be tested, and were handed information to call Healthline by the staff managing the site.

    This evening Capital and Coast District Health Board (DHB) confirmed the centre was already fully booked for tomorrow, though other centres would be available.

    A new testing centre opened at Hataitai Park Netball courts this afternoon and the DHB said testing was still available there tomorrow, as well as at primary care facilities.

    A GP clinic testing in Karori said it had done about 10 times its usual number of tests.

    Locations of interest
    The Ministry of Health issued a list of locations visited by the tourist on Saturday and Sunday.

    People who visited some locations are being advised to get a test immediately and self isolate for the full 14 days.

    That includes the 600 people who visited the Surrealist Exhibition at Te Papa Tongarewa from 4pm to 5.45pm on Saturday, June 19. The national museum closed for a deep clean and up to 2500 visitors and staff may be required to isolate.

    Whitby Collegiate School closed for the remainder of the week as a precaution after holding its senior school ball at Te Papa on Saturday night. Eight of its staff were there to set up for the ball at the same time as the new case visited, and their absence would also mean reduced staffing.

    People who visited Jack Hackett’s Irish Bar on the corner of Taranaki Street and Inglewood Place on June 19 between 8.45pm and 12am are also being advised to get a test immediately and self isolate for the full 14 days.

    The list includes Wellington restaurants and cafes Floridita’s, Lido, Pickle & Pie, One Red Dog and Highwater Eatery at certain times on either Saturday or Sunday.

    The tourist stayed at the Rydges Hotel in Featherston Street which is also on the ministry’s list.

    Four close contacts of the person have been identified, two are in Palmerston North and two are in Tauranga. All four are isolating and returned negative initial Covid-19 tests today.

    Some 58 passengers who came into New Zealand from Sydney early on Saturday morning are considered close contacts and will have been contacted, Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said.

    They would all have been notified last night and will be ringing Healthline directly.

    • Updates on the locations of interest are on the Ministry of Health website here.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Fiji records two covid deaths amid record 180 new cases

    By Lice Movono, RNZ Pacific correspondent in Suva

    Fiji’s covid19 case count broke records again yesterday as medical authorities recorded another two deaths at the Colonial War Memorial Hospital CWM) in the capital Suva.

    Two men, a 68-year-old and a 42-year-old are the latest certified covid deaths.

    The CWM Hospital is investigating another two covid-positive deaths – a 57-year-old man who had other conditions and a 66-year-old woman who was pronounced dead on arrival but who tested positive for covid-19.

    There have now been nine covid-19 deaths in Fiji, two from 2020 and seven since this outbreak of the Delta Variant began in mid April.

    Eight covid-19 positive deaths from CWM Hospital have been attributed to other illnesses.

    Of the new cases reported, increases have been mostly from the Central Eastern division towns of Lami, Nasinu and Nausori adjacent to the capital Suva with cases in neighbourhoods previously covid-free as well as increases to previously known clusters.

    Concerning trends include two more cases from Lautoka City which had been covid free for more than a month. On Denarau Island in Nadi, there are new cases in hotels where frontliner screening teams have been accommodated and off duty medics from Suva’s CWMH have served their post-shift quarantine.

    100+ cases a day
    Fiji hit the 100 cases a day mark on June 13 and, according to Health Secretary Dr James Fong, the country’s national 7-day average daily test positivity rate sits at 4.4 percent and is increasing.

    The positivity rate is a measure of positive results against the total of all tests conducted and high can mean infection is moving fast through a community or that there isn’t enough testing.

    However, with Fiji’s testing capabilities boosted in recent weeks, the latest of which was through the donation of new equipment from the New Zealand government, the Fiji Head of Health Protection, Dr Aalisha SahuKhan, confirms enough tests are being conducted in the country.

    The World Health Organisation considers 5 percent to be high. Elsewhere in the world, regions have had to maintain a below 5 percent positivity rate for 14 days before public health restrictions can reopen.

    Screening clinics in 56 centres operate throughout Fiji with 5998 people screened and 933 swabbed in the last reporting period up till 8am Tuesday.

    With an extra 50,000 AstraZeneca vaccines donated by the Australian government earlier in the week, the MOH has managed to administer one dose to 256,117 people which is 44 percent of its over 18-year-olds. A total of 18,000 of those people are now fully-vaccinated. The government has in total deployed 274,124 doses.

    In the reporting period announced last night, 86 patients have recovered so Fiji has 1631 active cases in isolation. There have been 2200 cases since April 2021 alone and 2270 since March 2020.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    AUSMAT team arrives in Fiji.
    Members of the AUSMAT team arrive in Fiji. Image: RNZ


    This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Duterte threatens to jail Filipinos who refuse getting vaccinated

    By Pia Ranada in Manila

    What is Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s solution to vaccine hesitancy among Filipinos? Threaten them with jail time.

    Duterte, in a meeting with pandemic task force officials yesterday said he would order the arrest of people who refused to get vaccinated.

    “Kung ayaw mo magpabakuna, ipaaresto kita at ang bakuna, itusok ko sa puwet mo. Putang ina, bwisit kayo,” said an irate Duterte in edited footage of the meeting aired on television.

    (If you don’t want to get vaccinated, I’ll have you arrested then I’ll inject a vaccine into your buttocks.)

    “Magpabakuna kayo or ipakulong ko kayo sa selda (Get vaccinated or I’ll jail you in a cell),” he added.

    He has also threatened to inject them with the version of anti-parasitic medicine Ivermectin intended for animals.

    Duterte said his justification for such a drastic measure as arrest was the state of national emergency he declared over the country due to covid-19 and the dangers posed by unvaccinated people as possible “carriers” of the disease.

    He conceded it was a “strong-arm” tactic for which he would find a legal way to enforce.

    “I will think it over very hard, legally of course, in pursuance of a policy of crisis, this health issue,” said Duterte.

    The President also said he would tell local government officials to “find” those who were unwilling to get vaccinated.

    “I will order all the barangay captains to have a tally of all the people who refuse to be vaccinated,” said Duterte, adding that the Department of the Interior and Local Government should supervise the effort.

    The Duterte administration is already notorious for its use of barangay lists to keep tabs on suspected drug users and peddlers, many of whom have ended up killed either in police operations or by unknown assailants.

    Harshest vaccination policy
    If Duterte makes good on his threat, his would probably be the harshest penalty globally for people unwilling to get vaccinated against covid-19 and would likely raise human rights concerns.

    In Indonesia, its capital Jakarta announced it would fine people who refused to get vaccinated.

    Will coercion and threat work among a majority of Filipinos unsure about getting their jabs? A Social Weather Stations survey conducted from late April to early May found that only three out of 10 Filipinos were willing to get vaccinated.

    The top reason for this unwillingness was fear of side effects of vaccines being used — the most common is the Chinese Sinovac — and the belief that the vaccines were not safe or effective, according to SWS.

    Lawmakers and civil society organisations have called on the government to ramp up its vaccination information drive to counter vaccine hesitancy.

    Pacific Media Watch reports that the Philippines has logged at least 1.35 million infections and over 23,500 deaths since the pandemic began, but under 6 percent of its roughly 108 million residents have been inoculated with at least one dose.

    The republic has now secured the delivery of 113 million doses from five vaccine manufacturers: Sinovac with 26 million doses, Sputnik V with 10 million doses, 20 million doses from Moderna, 17 million doses from AstraZeneca — and now a deal for 40 million doses from Pfizer.

    Pia Ranada covers the Office of the President and Bangsamoro regional issues for Rappler. While helping out with desk duties, she also watches the environment sector and the local government of Quezon City. Rappler articles are republished by Asia Pacific Report with permission.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • 126 new Fiji covid infections with another death as cases still high

    By Koroi Tadulala, FBC News journalist

    Fiji recorded 126 new cases of covid-19 in the 24-hour period ending at 8am yesterday with another death as the pandemic continues to take hold.

    The Ministry of Health said the 42-year-old man died at the Colonial War Memorial Hospital (CWMH).

    He was admitted to hospital with leptospirosis and also tested positive for covid-19 during his admission.

    Health Secretary Dr James Fong said the man’s death was being investigated by his doctors to determine if it would be classified as a covid-19 death.

    Dr Fong said 59 recoveries had also been recorded and there were now 1542 active cases in isolation.

    He added that the number of covid-19 cases recorded since April this year had increased to 2020.

    This meant that the total cases recorded since Fiji registered its first case last year stood at 2090.

    Dr Fong said to date there had been 532 recoveries and seven deaths due to covid-19 in Fiji.

    Five of the deaths were recorded during the current outbreak with eight covid-19 positive patients haing died from pre-existing non-covid-19 related illnesses.

    The Health Secretary said one death was currently under investigation.

    Fiji covid clusters 210622
    Fiji covid-19 clusters on Viti Levu as cases continue. Image: FBC/Fiji govt
    Fiji covid-19 statistics 210621
    Fiji covid-19 statistics as at 21 June 2021. Image: FBC/Fiji govt

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Medics arrive in Fiji to help with covid – $10m support from NZ

    RNZ Pacific

    The New Zealand government is ramping up its support to Fiji, which is in the grips of a covid-19 pandemic crisis.

    Another 126 new cases of the virus were reported in the Pacific nation today.

    The New Zealand government is now allocating up to $10 million towards Fiji’s covid-19 response.

    In addition, a team of Australian and New Zealand medical specialists have arrived there to help.

    Red Cross Covid-19 coordinator Lauren Bird, who is based in Suva, said many people felt back in April there was light at the end of the tunnel.

    But she said this recent outbreak had reset the clock.

    The bulk of cases were in the Suva-Nausori corridor, where about a third of the population is based, Bird said.

    Community transmission big concern
    “The community transmission is a big concern and this is also happening on the back of Fiji already suffering with the borders closed for the year, people had already lost income of livelihoods.”

    RNZ Pacific correspondent Lice Movono, who is in Suva, said the Fijian government was reluctant to go into a national lockdown.

    “To explain it very simply, they can’t afford the national lockdown,” she said.

    “They’re saying that restricting people from being able to go back to work and re-open businesses means from a public perspective they can’t take their health into their own hands, in terms of being able to put food on the table.”

    To respond to the unfolding situation, the New Zealand government signed off an additional support package.

    “The assistance includes up to $5 million for the government to deliver covid-19 operations, and $5 million to local civil society organisations working directly with households to mitigate poverty risks, including through the provision of food rations,” said Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta.

    New Zealand is sending two medical specialists to join Australia’s medical assistance team (AUSMAT) in Fiji.

    Seven days in MIQ
    “They will spend some seven days in MIQ and then a 28-day assignment which helps do two things, effectively support the on the ground response, but also undertake a bit of assessment about what else is required,” Mahuta said.

    An anaesthetist was part of the six-member Ausmat team that arrived tonight.

    Mahuta said a Defence Force infectious disease specialist will be deployed in the near future.

    As Fiji grapples with the outbreak, the Health Ministry is continuing its vaccine roll-out, with another 50,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine arriving on Saturday as part of the Australian government’s support of one million doses.

    New Zealand has pledged half a million doses, which Mahuta said was expected to arrive from July.

    However, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern noted AstraZeneca was yet to be approved by Medsafe.

    “Until they’re approved in New Zealand, we are unable to pass on those doses, so instead we have been working with Australia, who are able to help them with doses sooner into Fiji,” she said.

    Fiji now has more than 1500 active cases in isolation since this outbreak in April. Five people have also died since then.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.