Fiji

Amenoni Nasilasila was sentenced to eight years in September for the 2018 rape of a young woman.

Last week, the 26-year-old Olympic gold medallist was reportedly seen training with the Namosi rugby teams in Suva.

But women's rights groups say the preferential treatment of high-profile prisoners has to stop.

Shamima Ali, of the Fiji Women's Crisis Centre, said the fact that Nasilasila's non-parole period was six years also highlighted the complete disregard by the department to allow him to participate in training with the Prisons and Namosi rugby teams.

The 50-year-old woman is a repatriated Fijian citizen who returned from India on 1 July.

She is the wife of one of the earlier announced border quarantine cases from the same flight.

When her husband tested positive they were both moved from quarantine to an isolation facility at Lautoka Hospital.

She had tested negative during a first round of testing but tested positive after a second round.

The new case brings to a total of nine border quarantine cases announced since 6 July, all repatriated citizens from the same flight.

They include a 44-year-old man, a 38-year-old woman, a 51-year-old man, a 29-year-old woman and a 47-year-old man.

The acting permanent secretary of health, James Fong, said one of them is the husband of one of the three patients confirmed earlier this week.

He said all eight cases were caught in border quarantine and there's no threat to the community.

Dr Fong said they are all stable in isolation at Nadi and Lautoka hospitals.

All eight people were passengers on the same repatriation flight from India, which arrived in Nadi on Saturday.

One of them is the 37 year-old son of the man who was confirmed to have the coronavirus yesterday.

They returned on a repatriation flight from India on Saturday.

The other confirmed case is a 36 year-old woman who was on the same flight.

The acting permanent secretary of health, Dr James Fong, said the cases were caught in border quarantine and that there was no threat to the community.

"Fiji's defences against Covid-19 have been tried and tested with the first 18 cases and now with border quarantine cases," Dr Fong said.

A 66-year-old man, who returned from India on a repatriation flight on Saturday, tested positive for COVID-19 last night.

Acting Permanent Secretary for the Health Ministry Dr James Fong said the man’s son has been tested and his results are expected by tomorrow.

FBC News reports The man was travelling with 107 other passengers on a repatriation flight from India over the weekend.

At a media conference, Dr Fong said this is case 19 and it is called border quarantine case.

He said they don’t expect this to be Fiji’s last border quarantine case.

A coalition of NGOs says the pandemic has been a disaster for the country with the tourism sector shedding 100,000 jobs in the tourism-dependent country.

The rural development organisation FRIEND says the job losses each represent a household of four people, which accounts for half the country's bread winners.

FRIEND's chief executive Sashi Kiran said that doesn't take into account the informal sector.

"We've had massive layoffs, from Airports Fiji, Fiji Airways, lots and lots of companies," she said.

The cyclone caused widespread devastation, particularly in rural and maritime communities.

But even before this cyclone hit, Fiji, like the rest of the world were already fighting our own battle against COVID-19. Businesses have been affected and many have lost their jobs and are struggling to support their families.

This pandemic will continue to spread, and affect our people if not prevented.

Pacific Energy values the lives of every Fijian.

Wellington's response follows Fiji's announcement this week that it was hoping to establish a tourism bubble with Australia and New Zealand, to attract visitors.

Fiji Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama said tourists could be contained and prevented from mixing with locals.

"VIP lanes - starting on the airplane, then from Nadi Airport onto designated transport to their designated resort or hotel where they'll remain throughout their stay", Mr Bainimarama said.

Fiji was identifying geographically-isolated resorts best suited for the Bula Bubble, he said.

Most sporting facilities have remained closed since March in response to the coronavirus pandemic, although some non-contact sports were allowed to resume on a recreational level last month.

It's been 65 days since the country confirmed their last new case of Covid-19 and Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama announced yesterday that organised sport can now restart provided formal indoor and outdoor venues are restricted to 50 per cent capacity and physical distancing is maintained.

Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama said Fiji was working on a "Bula Bubble", between his country, New Zealand and Australia.

Upon arrival, travellers would have to spend 14 days in Fiji government quarantine facilities and then be required to pass a Covid-19 test to enter the general public.

This would be at their own cost or that of their respective government.