Fiji

Disaster authorities in Fiji are expecting Cyclone Tino to make landfall at Udu Point, the northernmost part of Vanua Levu, before midnight.

The Category two Cyclone continues to strengthen as it moves Southeast at 28km/hr.

The director of the Fiji Disaster Management Office said they have pre-positioned some relief supplies with the disaster commissioner for the Northern Division that can be used as soon as the cyclone passes over Vanua Levu.

Meanwhile, preparations are underway in Tonga with the capital, Nuku'alofa, sitting directly in Tino's path.

The cyclone, which was upgraded to a category one early on Friday morning, was strengthening as it sat the south of Fiji's western Rotuma island, the Fiji Meteorological Service said.

But it was gathering strength as it moved southeast, where it was heading straight for Fiji's second-largest island, Vanua Levu.

Warnings had been issued for much of the country, with torrential rain, strong winds, and damaging swells forecast.

The system is forecast to swerve south of Rotuma tonight, before tracking close to a major town, Labasa, tomorrow as a category one or two cyclone.

The Fiji Meteorological Service said it was then likely to move close to Tonga's main islands as a category two over the weekend.

Heavy wind and rain warnings are now in force for much of Fiji, with coastal flooding also forecast for Rotuma.

As of Wednesday afternoon, the disturbance was about 700km west of Rotuma and moving east.

Fiji Meteorological Service director Misa Funaki said people, especially in the maritime islands, were being warned to expect rough seas, heavy rain and strengthening winds.

"As [of Wednesday afternoon], it is still located about 1000km northwest of Nadi, it is slowly moving eastwards. Its current projections are projecting for it to head towards Vanua Levu, and we are looking at around Friday for this to occur.

The government said the removal of the ban comes after serious consideration by the National Measles Taskforce.

Since the outbreak, which has seen 28 confirmed measles cases, was declared in November, around 459,000 people have been immunised across the country.

The government said while new cases continue to be reported in the Central Division, the number of new cases per week has decreased.

However it said despite the advisory against gatherings being lifted members of the public are still being urged to take precautions and to make sure they get vaccinated.

This was confirmed by the Chairman of the Organising Committee, Jay Whyte.

Every year, Fijian rugby fans get to meet their rugby idol, who is in the country to be a chief guest at the tournament.

Caucau is a retired rugby player who last played professionally for Northland in the ITM Cup. His nickname is the "Bua Bullet" as he hails from the province of Bua.

The 39-year-old was described by the media as "one of the fastest and most flamboyant players in international rugby.

Caucau also played for French clubs Toulouse and Agen.

Kali-D released a video on social media announcing his opening for Iyaz who is from the British Virgin Islands.

The ‘Ride My Lane’ singer is looking forward to the opportunity.

“I’ll be finally coming to Fiji and I’ll be opening for Iyaz on the 22nd of January. We’ll be at the Onyx Platinum. I’m so excited and it should be a great night.”

This is the first time that Iyaz well-known for his hit songs ‘So Big’, ‘Solo’ and ‘Replay’  will be touring Australia, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Fiji in January.

It said the latest confirmed cases are a 12 year-old from Sakoca in Tacirua who is linked to a previous case in the same area, and a 39 year-old from Nasole in Nasinu who was admitted to hospital and later discharged home.

The 3 month-old baby, reported in previous updates, is still in hospital. All other confirmed cases have recovered or are recovering well under home isolation.

The national measles immunisation campaign was temporarily suspended on December 27th 2019 due to Tropical Cyclone Sarai and will restart in all divisions next week.

Fiji's government introduced plans to phase out plastic bags in January this year and the country joins the growing list of Pacific nations to do so.

Marshall Islands, Vanuatu, Niue, Samoa and New Zealand's bans are already in effect while the Pacific's most populous nation, Papua New Guinea, joins them at the end of next month.

In August 2017, Fiji introduced a 10 cent plastic bag levy to reduce plastic bag usage, and a year later the use of plastic bags had halved.

The storm battered large areas of Fiji for three days but overnight the system moved on.

It is now over Tonga, though it has weakened considerably.

The Centre reports teams would be sent to the affected communities on Wednesday to fully assess Sarai's impact.

It said it had reports of damage to houses across all four divisions, with some homes completely demolished by the cyclone.

The Centre also said farms, as well as health and education facilities had also been damaged.