Two travellers test positive for Covid in American Samoa.
Two travellers have tested positive for Covid-19 in Pago Pago after arriving in American Samoa on a Hawaiian Airlines flight.
All 282 passengers from the November 18 flight had tested negative for the first test - an antigen test conducted on Saturday.
The two travellers tested positive for the second test conducted on Wednesday, a PCR test.
Director of Health, Motusa Tuileama, confirmed the positive test results for the two individuals.
The positive cases are now in managed isolation.
There have been a total of seven positive cases of Covid-19 - all travellers testing positive in quarantine.
More Covid-19 cases recorded in the CNMI
Another 32 positive cases of Covid 19 have been recorded in the Northern Marianas bringing the territory's total to 604 cases since March.
It comes a day after the Commonwealth Healthcare Corporation reported 98 new cases in a day.
Of the 32 new cases, 20 were identified via community testing and 12 via contact tracing.
Covid-19 Task Force chair Warren Villagomez has assured the Commonwealth has enough quarantine and isolation rooms to respond.
He said the task force are working closely with the mayors of Tinian and Rota - which have not reported any Covid-19 cases thus far - to ensure measures are in place in the event that Covid-19 is transmitted there.
Fiji Covid-19: 6 new cases, 12 people in hospital
Fiji has reported six new cases of Covid-19 in the 24 hours to 8am on Wednesday.
This brings the total number of active cases to 2-hundred and 79.
Fiji's Government also confirmed 12 Covid patients are in hospital in serious condition.
There are no deaths to report and the toll's at 6-hundred and 95 (695).
Ninety-point four (90.4) percent of the adult population is fully vaccinated.
Fijian school children will resume classes on January 4th next year - nine months after being sent home due to the Covid-19 outbreak.
Fiji's Education Minister Premila Kumar said Year 12 and 13 students are already back in school to prepare for their exams from February 1st to the 17th next year.
While it's not mandatory, Ms Kumar is urging parents to ensure their children are vaccinated against Covid-19.
"We've seen the results. Ever since Fiji started with its vaccination program. We've seen decrease in the number of Covid cases within the communities. And that's the evidence we have."
Fiji's Health Ministry said just over 25-thousand (25,313) children aged 15-17 are fully vaccinated, while 12-thousand aged 12-14 have received their first dose of the Covid vaccine.
German medical team arrive in PNG to assist with Covid-19 crisis
A German medical team is helping a Papua New Guinea hospital to deal with the covid-19 crisis.
The team is one of the four Emergency Medical Teams to have responded to the PNG Government's request to help in the Covid-19 response.
They will be based at the Nonga Base Hospital in Kokopo, East New Britain, for three weeks.
The 10-member team deployed to PNG comprises specialists in anaesthesiology, intensive care, surgery, nursing and paramedic.
The CADUS Emergency Medical Team is based in Berlin, and is a not-for-profit organisation, and its deployment to PNG has been made financially possible by the German Government.
The CADUS Emergency Medical Team from Germany are in PNG to help with the Covid-19 crisis Photo: PNG government
Team Leader Thorben Schulze-Hamann thanked the German Government for funding his team's deployment to PNG.
"We've been deployed in other parts of the world, and this is our first time to come to PNG," Dr Schulze-Hamann said.
Prior to leaving for Kokopo, they were briefed by the National Control Centre EMT Team Lead Dr Gary Nou and his deputy Dr Kapua Kapua of PNG, ENB, and the health system in the country.
Meanwhile, there is also a medical assistance team from New Zealand on the ground in PNG. They have been deployed to Bougainville. Three of their members have also been assigned to help out at the National Control Centre in Port Moresby.
Concerns at low number of Rotuman speakers in Aotearoa
A Rotuman language expert in New Zealand is concerned at the low number of Pacific language speakers in Aotearoa.
According to the 2018 Census, close to one-thousand people identified as Rotumans, and only 22 percent of them can speak their language.
Overall, less than 40 percent of Pacific people can speak their own language.
Fesaitu Solomone said while there has been a slight increase in the number of Rotuman speakers in her community, she wants to see better results.
"There's a lot of fluent speakers but if you look at the younger population that we have now, the generation in the next five to 10 years, there's the gap that we don't know.
As the elders and the older generation starts to leave, then our young ones will be at risk, very high risk because not many of them speak the language," she said.
The government launched the Le'o Moana o Aotearoa Pacific Languages Survey this week to address the decline in Pasifika speakers in New Zealand.
