Beginning early next month, anyone travelling to Vanuatu will need to be fully vaccinated with the COVID-19 vaccine.
The Vanuatu Daily Post reports it is not a mandatory requirement yet for travellers to get fully vaccinated against coronavirus before entering the country.
Director of Public Health and Spokesperson for the Health Emergency Advisory Committee, Len Tarivonda said, “The Health Emergency Advisory Committee has recently decided that it would be mandatory for anyone to get fully vaccinated before coming to Vanuatu, once repatriation flights resume on September 12.”
“Despite being not a prerequisite requirement yet, a lot of passengers on a previous repatriation flight have shown proof of vaccination.
“Currently, repatriation flights are being suspended.
“The requirement of getting vaccinated before coming to Vanuatu will definitely be mandatory once repatriation flights resume.
“People are fully vaccinated at least two weeks after getting the second dose of an approved COVID-19 vaccine.”
Tarivonda said flights are not allowed from Fiji where the dangerous Delta variant cases are rising every day.
“Only cargo flights from Fiji are allowed and only by Air Vanuatu. Nobody is allowed to come to Vanuatu from Fiji via Australia or New Zealand (NZ),” he said.
“We have an electronic data base of screening and also have a tracking system to ensure people correctly complete the online health clearance form.
“Providing misleading information on the health clearance form is an offence. People caught doing that will be dealt with by the National Disaster Management Office (NDMO).”
“We have been making sure to restrict the number of people coming from countries considered high risk due to coronavirus.”
With the global coronavirus lockdown, people entering Vanuatu are strictly citizens, permanent residents and those issued with special visa.
Citizens are mostly seasonal workers returning from Australia and NZ.
Tarivonda added the repatriation of Vanuatu students from Fiji being organized by the government will be undertaken under reinforced protocols.
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