Tahiti aims for border reopening in May

6:28 am on 12 April 2021

French Polynesia hopes to be able to reopen its borders for quarantine-free travel in May after Paris shut down travel in February because of a worsening pandemic in France.

The French Polynesian president Edouard Fritch said on his return from Paris that he had the word from President Emmanuel Macron that the resumption of tourism to Tahiti was allowed if certain health conditions were met.

The President of French Polynesia, Edouard Fritch

The President of French Polynesia, Edouard Fritch Photo: AFP

Fritch said 15000 vaccine doses would be delivered weekly to accelerate the Covid-19 inoculation campaign, which has delivered at least one jab to almost 30,000 people.

Despite the improvements, an official announcement is yet to be made.

France included French Polynesia in its order in February to halt travel from and to non-European Union destinations, ending Tahiti's six-month period of quarantine-free tourism from France and the US.

Renewed travel from last July onward reintroduced Covid-19, infecting more than 18,000 and contributing to the death of 141.

The pandemic peaked late last year, with daily infections having now fallen to single digits.

However, in the past week a first case of the Brazilian variant was detected.

Get the RNZ app

for ad-free news and current affairs