Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says he has had discussions with Australia and New Zealand about the proposed trans-Tasman bubble and the possibility of Fiji’s inclusion in it.
“We have talked about the bubble and obviously what are some of the requirements and indeed the time period in which New Zealand is looking at opening up their borders, their first priority is obviously Australia,” he said.
The A-G said he had highlighted to both countries that all Pacific Island Countries were different in their capabilities to handle COVID-19, and this had to be taken into consideration.
“There are different experiences of different PICs with COVID19 — different experiences and different capacities and capabilities of their health systems.
“They need to assess each country individually and that’s what we try to highlight,” Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said.
“As you know that in Fiji’s case we have been fairly good in terms of the way we have handled the cases related with COVID-19.
“The rate of recovery and the fact that we were one of the first countries to close their borders and the fact that we have these very successful fever clinics around the country — in the last count over 700,000 Fijians actually who have been tested through the fever clinic process.”
