Wallis delegation to meet Macron in Tahiti
A delegation from Wallis and Futuna is expected to fly to French Polynesia today to meet the French president Emmanuel Macron.
According to the French prefect in Wallis, Mr Macron originally had Wallis and Futuna on his itinerary, but called off a visit because of the restrictions linked to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The prefect Herve Jonathan has told local television Mr Macron wanted to mark this week s 60th anniversary of the territory s current status as a French overseas collectivity.
He said the 14-member delegation will include representatives of the three traditional kingdoms as well as the Catholic archbishop.
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New off-road vehicles to accelerate malaria elimination in Vanuatu
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Port Vila, Vanuatu – Two new Land Cruiser pick-up trucks and four quad-bikes were officially handed over today to the Vanuatu Ministry of Health by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) as part of ongoing efforts to accelerate towards malaria elimination in Vanuatu and enhance coverage of life-saving health services across the country.
The Land Cruisers will be used on the islands of Santo in Sanma province, and Malekula in Malampa province – the two largest land masses in Vanuatu – for malaria case investigation, surveillance and timely reporting. While the quad-bikes will be used for malaria case investigation and supervisory visits in Tafea, Malampa and Sanma. Deployment of teams for rapid investigation and response is essential to ensure every last case is reached and treated to halt all transmission and achieve malaria elimination.
Vanuatu s government is planning to begin the rollout of Covid-19 vaccinations early next month.
The country last night received a shipment of 24,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine through the COVAX facility.
Vanuatu s Ministry of Health says the doses were sent from Italy and came via Brisbane.
The vaccines from UNICEF arrive in Port Vila.
Photo: UNICEF
The arrival in Port Vila on Wednesday of 24,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine marks the seventh country for vaccines to arrive in the Pacific region through the COVAX Facility in the global partnership s effort to deliver at least two billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines by the end of 2021.
Vanuatu’s Ministry of Health has partnered with Kacific and its local service provider 3 Link Communications to deploy the Health Project, a programme to bring fast broadband to health clinics and communities across Vanuatu.