Covid-19 vaccines

The Solomon Times reports that the doses of Sinopharm vaccine arrived in Honiara on Sunday night.

The Sinopharm vaccine, which was developed by a Beijing-based State-Owned Enterprise, is yet to be approved by the World Health Organisation.

But the Solomons government said it would closely monitor the WHO's approval process relating to Sinopharm.

A Health Ministry official said the Sinopharm vaccine will only be rolled out once WHO approves it.

While officially receiving the vaccinations today, Tuilaepa said Samoa is the 6th Pacific country to have received their allocation of vaccines through the COVAX Facility in the past month.

He thanked the COVAX Facility and all the partners that have contributed to ensuring all countries, in particular small islands states and low income countries, have access to the vaccines.

This is a historic step towards achieving the goal to ensure equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines globally, in what will be part of the largest vaccine procurement and supply operation in history.

The 9 April 2021 arrival in Apia of 24,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine marks the sixth batch of vaccines to arrive in the Pacific region through the COVAX Facility in the global partnership’s effort to deliver at least two billion doses.

With tourism a leading employer and economic pillar for many of the small states, the United Nations agency said pledges to ensure 'nobody was left behind' had to be backed up with firm actions.

It said that given the relatively small size of the populations in the small island states the cost of mass vaccinations will be minimal compared to the potential benefits of restarting tourism.

The government has announced strict criteria for early vaccinations with sportspeople among those eligible to apply.

Those most immediately affected will be athletes who're selected to compete at July's Tokyo Olympics.

Several national sporting bodies, including the New Zealand Olympic Committee, have been lobbying the government for athletes to be given preferential treatment.

The secretary general of the New Zealand Olympic Committee Kereyn Smith said they're they're grateful for the decision but it won't be mandatory for athletes to get the jab.

At the weekend, 24-thousand doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, supplied through Covax facility, arrived in the Solomons.

The country's prime minister Manasseh Sogavare, gave a national update confirming the rollout will launch at the central field hospital which he said was best equipped for mass vaccinations.

He urged all people over eighteen years of age to get vaccinated when a health team comes to their area.

Coronavirus vaccines are seen as crucial to reviving an industry that saw worldwide passenger numbers fall 75.6% last year.

Chief executive Alan Joyce said many governments were talking about vaccination as "a condition of entry".

Even if they weren't, he thought the airline should enforce its own policy.

"We have a duty of care to our passengers and to our crew, to say that everybody in that aircraft needs to be safe," Mr Joyce said.

He believes that would justify changing the terms and conditions on which tickets are booked.

Prime Minister Tuila'epa Sa'ilele Malielegaoi told TV3Samoa yesterday that 79,000 vaccines would arrive from New Zealand on the first consignment.

He said the implementation plan is in place and will see all front-line staff get the vaccine first and moving on to the more at risk age groups until everyone is vaccinated.

Tuilaepa said he was aware of people who have indicated they do not want to be vaccinated and warned the dangers that would pose for everyone.

The first priority group included border and managed isolation quarantine workers and their household contacts.

The second priority group are front-line health workers and people living in high-risk settings such as older people in South Auckland, people in residential care and older people particularly Māori and Pacific.

Aupito William Sio told RNZ Pacific that providers have trusted relationships with the communities they serve, and they will be able to identify and vaccinate the Pasifika elderly in their regions.

In his first primetime address as president, Mr Biden said he would order states to make all adults eligible for vaccinations by 1 May.

Current measures prioritise people by age or health condition.

His speech comes a year to the day the outbreak was classified as a pandemic. Half a million Americans have died.

Last March, all US major sport was cancelled and actor Tom Hanks announced he had caught the virus. Then-President Donald Trump suspended travel from Europe, and also said he hoped the US would be open again for Easter.