Fiji

Rupeni Caucau to be Fiji’s Coral Coast Sevens 2020 Ambassador

This was confirmed by the Chairman of the Organising Committee, Jay Whyte.

Every year, Fijian rugby fans get to meet their rugby idol, who is in the country to be a chief guest at the tournament.

Caucau is a retired rugby player who last played professionally for Northland in the ITM Cup. His nickname is the "Bua Bullet" as he hails from the province of Bua.

The 39-year-old was described by the media as "one of the fastest and most flamboyant players in international rugby.

Caucau also played for French clubs Toulouse and Agen.

PNG singer Kali D to perform with Iyaz in Fiji

Kali-D released a video on social media announcing his opening for Iyaz who is from the British Virgin Islands.

The ‘Ride My Lane’ singer is looking forward to the opportunity.

“I’ll be finally coming to Fiji and I’ll be opening for Iyaz on the 22nd of January. We’ll be at the Onyx Platinum. I’m so excited and it should be a great night.”

This is the first time that Iyaz well-known for his hit songs ‘So Big’, ‘Solo’ and ‘Replay’  will be touring Australia, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Fiji in January.

Fiji confirms 27 measles cases

It said the latest confirmed cases are a 12 year-old from Sakoca in Tacirua who is linked to a previous case in the same area, and a 39 year-old from Nasole in Nasinu who was admitted to hospital and later discharged home.

The 3 month-old baby, reported in previous updates, is still in hospital. All other confirmed cases have recovered or are recovering well under home isolation.

The national measles immunisation campaign was temporarily suspended on December 27th 2019 due to Tropical Cyclone Sarai and will restart in all divisions next week.

Fiji's plastic bag ban to come into effect on New Year's Day

Fiji's government introduced plans to phase out plastic bags in January this year and the country joins the growing list of Pacific nations to do so.

Marshall Islands, Vanuatu, Niue, Samoa and New Zealand's bans are already in effect while the Pacific's most populous nation, Papua New Guinea, joins them at the end of next month.

In August 2017, Fiji introduced a 10 cent plastic bag levy to reduce plastic bag usage, and a year later the use of plastic bags had halved.

     

Cyclone Sarai: Damage in Fiji extensive

The storm battered large areas of Fiji for three days but overnight the system moved on.

It is now over Tonga, though it has weakened considerably.

The Centre reports teams would be sent to the affected communities on Wednesday to fully assess Sarai's impact.

It said it had reports of damage to houses across all four divisions, with some homes completely demolished by the cyclone.

The Centre also said farms, as well as health and education facilities had also been damaged.

Tropical Cyclone Sarai wreaks havoc in Fiji

 The Category 2 storm battered Fiji's southern Lau group last night - winds of up to 170 km/hr.

Two people have died during Sarai in Fiji, where the body of a man was found after he went missing in a river during the storm, and another drowned while swimming.

A third person has been hospitalised after being hit by a falling tree.

More than 2000 people remain in the 54 evacuation centres.

Many people across parts of the Central, Western and Northern Divisions have been without power supply since Friday night.

Category 1 Cyclone Sarai strengthening as it approaches Fiji

The Fiji Meteorology Service said Tropical Cyclone Sarai is moving south at 35 km/hr.

The cyclone is expected to have average winds of up to to 65 km/hr with gusts of 90 km/hr.

The Fiji Met Service said heavy rain may lead to flash flooding.

     

Fiji on tropical cyclone alert as bad weather moves closer

The Tropical Depression is moving at 10 kilometres per hour, according to the Fiji Meteorology Service.

The Director of Meteorology, Misaeli Funaki told Fiji Village said this system will move southwards and come close to Fiji and when it forms into a cyclone, it will be named Cyclone Sarai.

He said while the majority of the models are projecting for the system to move just to the west of Yasawa and Mamanuca Groups, some other models are showing that the Cyclone could come over Viti Levu later on Friday.

Nineteen confirmed measles cases in Fiji

The child is reported to be in a stable condition at the Colonial War Memorial Hospital in Suva.

The Health Ministry says the outbreak response teams are conducting investigations in the respective locations with quarantine and vaccination of contacts and at risk communities as appropriate.

Twelve cases are from the Serua/Namosi Subdivision in Wailali, Wainadoi, Navunikabi and Makosoi in Deuba.

Four cases are from Suva Subdivision in Samabula, Vatuwaqa, Tacirua and Wailekutu.

Fiji postpones all sporting competition following measles outbreak

Fiji has a much higher vaccination rate than Samoa, with only 15 confirmed cases in the country as of Tuesday, but health officials have warned people to avoid affected areas and cancel events likely to draw crowds.

"The gathering of youth and people for sporting events is not right and we should discourage it," said Peter Mazey, the chairman of the Fiji National Sports Commission.

"Working with the health ministry, we are going to try to stop it, now that we have 15 cases in the country."