Tuvalu

A new research project by Waipapa Taumata Rau | University of Auckland researchers and Pacific partners aims to investigate mental health challenges in Samoa, Tuvalu, and potentially Tonga as these countries navigate the Covid-19 pandemic and the climate crisis.

It has stopped recording Covid-19 cases, labeling the situation 'calm and normal.'

RNZ Pacific reports the last update was on November 30, 2022, when 2779 cases had been recorded since the community outbreak was announced on November 3.

Government spokesperson Lili Faavae said when the border was officially opened on December 1, 2022, a decision was made to scrap data recording of infections.

Spokesperson Milikini Failautusi said disinformation has been an issue and her team is working on a plan to tackle the issue for the new year.

"A lot of misconceptions and fears about the covid because people, via social media, were able to get the wrong information, they were able to get the misleading information from the internet."

She said the spread of the virus has been rapid, all of the 50 actively engaged Red Cross volunteers in Funafuti who are on the frontline - have had Covid-19 according to RNZ Pacific.

"Tuvalu is sinking," he said of his atoll nation where 40 per cent of the capital, Funafuti, is already below sea level at high tide.

This reality coupled with rapidly rising sea level has placed Tuvalu's population under enormous threat, world leaders were told.

Tuvalu's plight was highlighted by Natano during the High-Level Segment of the Twenty-Sixth Conference of the Parties to the UN's Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland.

The person arrived two weeks ago, and tested positive for the virus once in New Zealand.

They are staying in managed isolation in Auckland.

The tiny island nation has not had any previously reported cases of Covid-19.

About 14,000 people live across the Tuvalu archipelago, and UN data shows that 12,114 Covid-19 vaccine doses have been administered there.

The New Zealand Ministry of Health said this case was one of three new incoming border cases that were reported yesterday.

Another 126 community cases were also reported in New Zealand yesterday.

In a 18 June letter, Mr Natano said that due to the "political sensitivities and complexities surrounding the appointment of the Secretary-General, postpone, the decision on the appointment of the Secretary-General to the next formal face to face, session of the Pacific Islands Forum's Retreat."

The PIF chair also said the deadline of nominees for the next Secretary-General role, which was supposed to end on Friday should be extended until the Forum meeting in Fiji next year.

The cyclone which formed in Tuvaluan waters got as strong as a category three system - also affecting Fiji and Tonga.

The director of Tuvalu's disaster management office, Sumeo Silu, said based on initial reports about half of the country's population had been severely affected by the cyclone.

Food security was a major concern given ocean waves, whipped up by the storm, inundated gardens and strong winds uprooted trees and damaged banana and breadfruit trees, he said.

Few of the country's 14 islands were spared damage, said Sumeo Silu, the director of the country's disaster management office. Two hundred people had been evacuated on main island Funafuti alone, he said, as reports of significant damage to infrastructure came in from outer islands.

"It's quite devastated," Mr Silu said.

On Funafuti on Friday, the normally calm and shimmering lagoon was stirred into a raging muddy cauldron. In the tempest, two giant barges were shunted from their moorings onto the beach, said Semi Malaki, a local broadcaster.

With Tuvalu’s food security at risk, the Australian Government has launched an innovative new project to produce healthy food in small spaces through establishing highly productive, water-efficient food gardens. 

Using the Foodcube – a modular wicking gardening system – developed under the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s Innovation Xchange program and soil compost research from the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), the project will bring together key national and regional players to help atoll communities grow their own food.

A New Zealand Defence Force Orion located the vessel about 400 nautical miles west of Tuvalu earlier Friday.

The Orion dropped communications equipment, fresh water and lights to the crew of the Jin Xiang 6.

Now the Fiji Maritime Surveillance Rescue has reported there are 16 crew with the vessel and that life boats are in the water, as the vessel takes on seawater.

Fiji is connecting with nearby resources to help the crew.

Photo: New Zealand Defence Force