COVID-19

Thousands of jobs in countries like Fiji, Samoa and Tonga are dependent on visitor numbers, which have fallen to zero.

Thousands of jobs have already been lost, with resorts and hotels closing in Fiji, the Cook Islands and Samoa, countries where tourism makes up more than half the economy.

And the ILO said with the pain brought by the pandemic expected to be long-lasting, workers with previously stable incomes are sliding into poverty.

Many of these people are also informal workers, with few protections if their jobs fall through.

The cats, from separate areas of New York state, had mild respiratory illness and are expected to make a full recovery. It is believed that they contracted the virus from people in their households or neighbourhoods, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

"Animals, pets, can get infected. There's no evidence that the virus is transmitted from the pet to a human," Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said at the daily coronavirus briefing.

Governor Lou Leon Guerrero said one confirmed case was reported earlier on Thursday from US Naval Hospital Guam, and there is an additional probable case.

She said the US territory has 139 confirmed cases of Covid-19.

Five people have died from the virus there.

126 people have recovered from Covid-19 in Guam.

In the lawsuit, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt alleges China did little to stop the spread of the virus.

Mr Schmitt claims Missouri residents have suffered possibly tens of billions of dollars in economic damages.

China's foreign ministry denounced the move, saying the "frivolous lawsuit has no factual or legal basis".

A spokesperson said: "Really absurd. Based on the principle of sovereign equality, US courts have NO jurisdiction over the Chinese government."

The bulk of the funds will go to its Freely Associated States with Marshall Islands, Micronesia and Palau receiving over $US27.5-million from various federal agencies.

Other Pacific countries will receive a combined total of $US3.3-million from USAID while Papua New Guinea will get a separate $US1.2-million.

The funding announced late last week is on top of the more than $US32-million already committed by Washington since the start of the pandemic.

Danish national Flemming Serritslev arrived in Fiji over 12 weeks ago before agreeing to take charge of the Bula Boys on the road to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

His first matches in charge were set to be as part of an international tri-series against Solomon Islands and Tahiti in March before the fixtures were postponed because of Covid-19, while it was confirmed this week that the OFC Nations Cup in June had been scrapped.

The WHO's Western Pacific division held a media briefing this week to discuss the coronavirus.

Asked when regional countries might lift some restrictions imposed under their states of emergency, the WHO Regional Director Takeshi Kasai urged caution.

"When we consider lifting, we need a careful analysis of the situation And we should not lift everything all at once."

Dr Kasai said this applied to all countries, including those in the Pacific islands who had no reported cases of Covid-19.

The High Commission has assisted three charter flights and facilitated the return of some 50 Australian citizens and permanent residents since 25 March 2020.

The Australian High Commissioner to Tonga, Adrian Morrison, said the High Commission was working closely with the Tongan government and other governments, private organisations and airlines to assist Australians and permanent residents, noting that there were limitations in light of Tonga’s own COVID-19 restrictions.

The home of the 2019 World Cup winners has accepted they are in a fight for survival following the stoppage of rugby around the globe due to the coronavirus pandemic and an industry financial impact plan (IFIP) has been formulated to help guide them through turbulent times. 

In a statement, SA Rugby outlined that the country’s rugby industry has agreed in principle a wide-ranging plan to cut between R700m to R1b from its budget.

The beach volleyballers had taken two weeks of break after a State of Emergency was declared in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The women’s beach volleyball team is one step away from the Olympic Games after winning the Asian Continental Cup’s Oceania Qualifier last month.

Vanuatu coach Michel was thrilled with his team’s performance.

“It’s pushing us a lot and we need this push to have good attitude and to work hard back in Vanuatu at home because we will not have many tournaments in the next two months because of the coronavirus.