CORONAVIRUS UPDATE
REPUBLIC OF NAURU
Government Information Office
CORONAVIRUS UPDATE
by
His Excellency President Lionel
Aingimea
Wednesday, 2 September 2020
In this week's coronavirus update, Nauru continues its 'capture
& contain' strategy by placing in quarantine all new arrivals
to the island and testing for coronavirus.
There are currently 47 new arrivals at the Anibare village
quarantine residence, and are due to be tested this week, 3
September; while another eight at the Budapest Hotel were tested
last week, all returned negative results and sent home.
Regionally, New Zealand is still battling its second wave of the
virus, but the numbers of new cases daily steadily range between
two to 14 in the month of August. Fiji has had another death,
bringing the total deaths to two. Both cases are reportedly
repatriation passengers. Palau is reported to be looking at opening
up tourism with Taiwan next month. Taiwan is known to have
exceptional control and management of the coronavirus situation.
Discussions are also underway in Palau for the possibility of
hosting Micronesian leaders for their Independence Day
celebrations.
Meanwhile, Nauru's travel advisory will be updated to remove
French Polynesia from the safe list of countries for Nauru's
purposes, citing the fast increase in confirmed COVID-19 cases in
the country.
The Nauru Police Force is seeking 64 recruits to take over
security services at the quarantine sites (two sites at
Meneñ Hotel, and each at the Budapest Hotel and Anibare
village). The 33 applications received for the first group were
sworn in as police officers last week and are now undergoing
training in law and regulations, health and emergency services for
the purposes of COVID-19.
Another 46 applications for the second group are being
considered. The unit will be called 'Police Protective
Services'.
Nauru Airlines maintains its weekly and fortnightly flights for
passenger and freight with some additional charters.
Nauru Port Authority (NPA) is expecting fuel, phosphate and
cargo shipments in the next two to three weeks, while the
whereabouts of a Korean fuel ship is currently unknown to NPA.
Ports have put on hold the travel plans for 50 workers for the
port development project until further notice and the arrival of
its deputy project manager from Malaysia is also postponed due to
flight changes by the various airlines from his originating
country.
The new oxygen compressor has arrived and will be installed in
the coming weeks while a second oxygen plant is expected to arrive
this month. Over 40 refilled oxygen cylinders of varying sizes have
also arrived while the same numbers of empty cylinders were
returned to Brisbane last week for refilling.
Pharmaceutical stocks are healthy however some items nearing or
reached their expiry dates will be disposed of to obtain a true
picture of stock levels. In the meantime, all essential medical
stock will be flown in via Nauru Airlines to maintain supplies.
An important feature of the successful operation of an emergency
situation is an effective communications setup. Nauru Police and
Nauru Emergency Services have received the repeater for national
communications essential for COVID response and management of
emergency services. Final adjustments and fine-tuning of the system
is underway.
In finance, the Nauru Government is in the process of applying
for an additional COVID-19 support grant of approximately AU$1
million from the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The funding
will be earmarked to purchase essential supplies, fund recruitment,
quarantine costs, and requirements for disease prevention, to
name a few.
There has been positive feedback in regards to Nauru's
management of the threat of coronavirus. Observations made by
incoming passengers directly reference the "impressive" and
"excellent system" and management by staff from the time of
boarding the plane at Brisbane airport to disembarking at Nauru and
time spent in quarantine.
The enforced changing of face masks before disembarking the
aircraft in Nauru is praised as a first for any airline.
President Lionel Aingimea once again thanks the airline, health
and police for their tireless efforts in ensuring Nauru's
safety.
The president also revisited the concern by some members of the
public in regards to Nauru's five and a half days quarantine
compared to 14 days as imposed in other countries.
The president explains that Nauru's testing machine specifically
tests for the virus of COVID-19, while in other jurisdictions
testing may not be specific or mandatory due to their large
populations and numbers of arriving travellers therefore
restricting testing for everyone, hence their reliance on the 14
day quarantine.
President Aingimea says Nauru is guided by doctors and expert
advice and is blessed that we have the capability to test everyone
[every arrival by air or sea] all the time.