Permanent Secretary for Health, Doctor James Fong has confirmed that a repatriation flight was scheduled to come in from New Delhi to Fiji.
Doctor Fong says the repatriation flight has Fiji citizens stuck in India and have been processed through Fiji’s High Commission in India.
As per the country’s COVID-19 protocols, anyone coming in has to go through the 14 days quarantine process and can only leave the facility after getting negative test results.
We are awaiting more details on the flight from New Delhi as according to Loop PNG, a charter flight travelling in from India to Papua New Guinea was denied entry this week.
According to the flight detail, it was supposed to stop over in PNG and then come to Nadi.
PNG’s Health Minister, Jelta Wong says they have denied the entry due to concerns over the high possibility of passengers and crew contracting and transmitting the highly contagious Delta mutation of COVID-19 into PNG.
Wong says correct procedures were not followed for the charter flight to seek prior approval for travel and entry into the country and the PNG Government will not compromise its obligations in protecting the interests of the nation from the new heightened COVID-19 risk.
Wong says the spread of the highly contagious Delta strain of COVID-19 is a serious threat to PNG and countries around the world.
He says there are currently more than half a million known active COVID-19 infections in India and 50,000 new cases detected each day, and the real number is likely much higher.
Wong says the COVID-19 mutation rips through communities at high speed, and causes a much greater rate of hospitalization for people who become infected.
He says it would be highly irresponsible for the PNG Government to allow this charter flight to enter from one of the largest COVID-19 hotspots in the world.
