Repatriation flight

Acting Director of Public Health, Jenny Stephens, said people who travel overseas and return within a year are also included in the priority group.

She confirmed that booster shots of both the AstraZeneca and Sinopharm vaccines will be administered.

She told the Daily Post, "this is to reduce their risk of severe disease once overseas. This group of people are urged to come forward for their 3rd doses if it is five or more months since their 2nd dose."

The final group of people who are still in quarantine, are expected to be released on Saturday.

The Ministry of Health said there are 249 people who are expected to be discharged if their final Covid-19 test returns negative.

According to the ministry, around 150 people will be released this week and another 100 are expected to be released later.

The repatriates are being accommodated in five quarantine facilities.

A quarantine cap of 120 people was initially set by MOH since the resumption of the repatriation flights in September this year.

There will be no more repatriation flights after 04 December. Passengers who will return on the final flight will be released from quarantine on 18 December

According to the Public Health Surveillance Officer, Wendy Williams, over 7,000 people have been repatriated since last year.

275 were still in quarantine as of Monday this week, she conveyed.

This figure does not include those who were brought back on the flights Tuesday.

The government said 80 people arrived in Darwin on Saturday, and would be quarantined for a fortnight.

Their Qantas flight was originally scheduled to carry 150 people onboard.

But 70 passengers were later barred from travel after testing positive for coronavirus or coming into close contact with others who were.

Australia's strict rules on pre-flight testing meant there was not enough time for the seats to be given to others waiting to return.

The government's controversial ban, which made it an offence for people to try and re-enter Australia after being in India within the prior 14 days, began on Monday and was due to finish on 15 May.

Morrison said the National Security Committee met yesterday and agreed it saw "no need to extend it beyond that date".

"The original decision to put in place that biosecurity order until the 15th of May has proved very effective and it will run its full course until that time without any change," he said.

The trip is expected to be one of the happiest for the islanders who set sail from Samoa on Wednesday and are relieved they will be home for Christmas.

The group had arrived in Apia on a repatriation flight from New Zealand on 13 November.

But they had to spend an extra week in isolation in Samoa on top of the required 14 days after a passenger on the same flight tested positive for Covid-19.

Some of the 33 people who are undergoing yet another 14 days quarantine on their home atolls of Fakaofo and Nukunonu have been stuck in New Zealand since March.

Prior to the repatriation, a funeral service for His Excellency was held at St. Ninian's Parish in Wellington on Monday 10 August 2020.

The service was attended by the family of the Late High Commissioner, members of the Diplomatic Corps, New Zealand Government Officials and other dignitaries.

“Our hearts are saddened to farewell our esteemed colleague and friend, the late His Excellency Johnson M.Naviti. Our prayers are with the Naviti family as they return home to Port Vila today,” the Vanuatu High Commission said on social media today.

The flight is being jointly managed by New Zealand Government agencies, RSE employers and the Vanuatu Government, and follows the successful repatriation of over 1,000 Vanuatu citizens in June.

The flight has also provided an opportunity return the late Johnson Naviti, the former Vanuatu High Commissioner to New Zealand, and his family to Vanuatu.

The flight was repatriating Indians stranded by the coronavirus crisis.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was "pained by the plane accident".

The rescue operation at the crash site has now been completed and survivors have been taken to hospitals in Calicut and Malappuram, according to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

Dozens of people were injured, 15 of them seriously, a senior police officer said.

Air India Express said the two pilots were among the dead.

With support from the French Embassy in Vanuatu and the New Caledonian government, the airline is returning nine French nationals from Port Vila to Noumea.

It is the airline's first international passenger flight since Air Vanuatu suspended services in March following the closure of Vanuatu's borders.

The Vanuatu Daily Post reported no passengers were expected to be on the return flight.

Air Vanuatu's acting Chief Executive, Joseph Laloyer, said the flight was a positive step on the road towards international aviation recovery.