New Caledonia

Ratu Inoke is joined by Ali’ioaiga Feturi Elisaia, High Commissioner of Samoa to Fiji.

The Committee will be supported by the Forum Secretary General, Henry Puna, and staff of the Fiji Government and Forum Secretariat.

The committee was deployed by the Pacific Islands Forum to observe New Caledonia’s third and final independence referendum under the 1998 Noumea Accord on December 12.

Flights by Air Caledonie from Noumea to Mare, Lifou and Ouvea have been suspended until further notice.

The pass can be obtained once seven days have elapsed after the second jab of an mRNA vaccine and 28 days after getting other vaccines.

It is also available for those who have had a fresh negative test or proof of having recovered from Covid-19.

The provisions are resisted by several groups, including unions, which also reject the new local law, making vaccinations compulsory by the end of the year.

Henri Dokucas Naisseline said the vaccination obligation deprives people of fundamental rights of freedom and respect for human dignity.

The high chief of the Gaumha district on the island of Mare has decided to stop the vaccination drive in all the tribes under his control, suggesting the vaccine is dangerous.

However, he said those who wish to get the vaccine can still get it.

In August, the government launched an inoculation campaign in the mainly Kanak Loyalty Islands, called Vacci'tribs, in the hope of vaccinating 80 percent of the population by January.

New Caledonia has recorded its 25th death since the delta outbreak of Covid-19 began at the beginning of September.

Health officials are reporting about 5000 people a day are receiving their first jab - with long queues of people waiting to be vaccinated in Noumea and the outer islands.

On the outskirts of Noumea in Ko We Kara, a 'vaccine park' has been set up, and people arrive from six in the morning to register, while in the Loyalty Islands and the North vaccination is possible seven days a week without an appointment at dispensaries.

On Thursday, seven deaths from COVID-19 were recorded, the heaviest daily toll since the discovery of the first indigenous cases of the disease on September 6.

It brings the death toll to 24 since September 6, announced by President Louis Mapou, during a joint speech with the French High Commissioner, Patrice Faure.

A total of 211 people are in hospital, including 29 in intensive care.

Official government figures as of Tuesday show 4 deaths and 1,150 confirmed cases of COVID-19 recorded since 6 September.

Up until then there had been no COVID-19 deaths in the French Territory and only 136 infections recorded during two previous outbreaks.

There were 329 new cases reported in the 24 hours leading up to Tuesday and 15 people with the virus are in intensive care.

A curfew between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. has been put in place until midnight on Monday, 27 September.

Sixty-six cases have been recorded since the community outbreak was first detected on Monday and a lockdown has been in place since Tuesday.

There are seven people in intensive care with two in a serious condition.

The positive COVID cases range in age from 20 to 80 and while some are in Noumea hospital, others are in hotels set aside for quarantine.

The virus has been detected across the main island and in the Loyalty Islands, in particular in Lifou.

So far about a dozen clusters have been identified, with contacts being asked to isolate and get tested.

According to Les Nouvelles Caledoniennes, several thousand people joined a march from the seat of government to the Congress building, organised by the group ReinfoCOVID.

The demonstrators are also against the so-called health pass introduced in France.

The rally comes just a day after the Congress unanimously voted to make vaccinations for adults mandatory by the end of the year.

There is no general penalty for those refusing to comply, but medical staff and port and airport workers will be fined US$1,750 if they refuse inoculation.

New Caledonia, which closed its borders in March last year, is COVID-19 free but just 32 percent of the population has been vaccinated.

A leading physician Thierry De Greslan told a meeting in Noumea that the number of vaccinated people must be doubled within a month and to achieve this, jabs must be made mandatory.

The head of the employer's federation Mimsy Daly said all medical staff, including pharmacists, should be mobilised to roll out vaccines every day as to give the territory a chance to deal with the threat.

They say the individual, who had arrived from French Polynesia, has been transferred to the dedicated COVID-19 isolation unit of the main hospital in Noumea.

New Caledonia has been COVID-free since it succeeded to suppress a community outbreak in March with a month-long lockdown.

A government statement said the latest discovery doesn't call into question the need for everyone to be vaccinated to limit the spread of the virus.