Pacific islands unite to fight coronavirus threat
Top Stories | May 10, 2020:
Tom Abke
The global coronavirus outbreak has had limited impact on the nations of the Pacific islands, but the governments of states in the 18-member Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) aren’t taking any chances. They are implementing a mechanism dubbed the Pacific Humanitarian Pathway on COVID-19 (PHP-C) to provide medical and humanitarian assistance from partners across the region and the world.
Kausea Natano, PIF chairman and prime minister of Tuvalu, announced the program following a videoconference on April 7, 2020.
“Never before has the full forum membership simultaneously been in crisis,” Natano said, calling the pandemic “a global health emergency of unprecedented scale” and a “real and extreme danger to the health and security of the Pacific peoples.”
In establishing PHP-C, the ministers invoked the Biketawa Declaration, a resolution approved in October 2000 that provides for regional cooperation and assistance in times of crisis. PHP-C is specifically intended to facilitate the movement of medical supplies, technical experts and humanitarian assistance to PIF members in response to pandemic needs.
PIF members are: Australia, Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, French Polynesia, Kiribati, Nauru, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. As of April 20, 2020, Australia and New Zealand combined had reported just 8,000 COVID-19 cases and 83 deaths, with the other island states reporting 25 cases and no deaths.
PIF members are working with the United Nations to distribute medical items including N95 respirators, surgical masks, swabs, thermometers, test kits, gloves and medical gowns. At the country level, Fiji and Vanuatu operated tent clinics to care for COVID-19 patients, while Micronesia installed 100 hand-washing stations. In Kiribati, officials established a new SMS platform for COVID-19 text messaging, and the Solomon Islands trained social welfare officers to teach stress management and self-care during the pandemic. (Pictured: Children in Fiji practice good hygiene to combat the threat of COVID-19.)
Many member states have vulnerable health systems and infrastructure, making the timely delivery of medical and humanitarian assistance essential to protect the health of their populations, reported the PIF secretariat. Under PHP-C, customs clearance of medical supplies could be expedited, along with clearances for chartered flights and commercial shipping. It could also facilitate the repatriation of PIF member citizens.
Compounding the dangers posed by COVID-19 is the storm damage inflicted upon the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji and Tonga in early April 2020. Hundreds of homes and buildings were damaged or destroyed, and thousands of residents displaced.
“If ever there was a time where the region and its partners needed to work together in strong solidarity to overcome a direct and immediate threat to the lives of our people across our Blue Pacific region, it is now,” PIF Secretary-General Dame Meg Taylor said in a statement on April 17, 2020.
Tom Abke is a FORUM contributor reporting from Singapore.
