Tuesday 1 March 2022
The Vanuatu Ministry of Health has released the plan which points towards relaxing staged entry conditions to Vanuatu.
To date, Vanuatu has had an excellent record managing their borders, repatriating over 8000 people who have undertaken 14 days of mandatory quarantine.
Vanuatu has remained relatively COVID free, with protocols identifying 18 cases at the border, to date.
Vaccination rates are relatively strong in what is a very geographically complex place to deliver vaccines. With over 73 000 people fully vaccinated, the major centres of Port Vila and Luganville are on track to meet the 80% vaccination targets.
The country’s vaccination program in the more remote provinces, commenced in November 2021, with many people due for their second doses currently. We have also received the single dose vaccine of the Johnson and Johnson, which is expected to ease the complexity and improve the vaccination targets.
There have been some amazing stories of the efforts that have been undertaken by the Vanuatu health workers , to deliver the vaccines to some of the more remote areas of Vanuatu.
Many people in remote villages, for example in the Banks and Torres group of islands, need to walk for hours to get to a vaccination hub. We anticipate that the delivery of the single dose Johnson & Johnson will help reduce the vaccine hesitancy and increase numbers quickly.
The Roadmap to Safe and Staged Re-Opening of the Borders
Our Roadmap to Border Reopening uses vaccination as the key element to gradually reduce restrictions. Like all things with COVID, we are reviewing our activity based on the evolving situation.
Vanuatu is planning to take the first step by the end of March, subject to vaccination rates meeting their milestones.
The first steps involve reducing the length of quarantine but maintaining caps on the number of inbound arrivals. Initially, there will also be restricted movement. There will also be pre-screening requirements and PCR tests in the country.
Below is a summary of the different stages of the roadmap.
To obtain a copy of the Vanuatu Ministry of Health’ Roadmap to Safe Border Reopening, click HERE.
Keeping the People of Vanuatu safe is our priority.
Creating safe travel pathways to allow increased numbers of citizens, business travel, enabling medical support and economy building activities to commence, will be a gradual process.
Like every country, we need to plot a way forward to living with COVID and the Vanuatu Government is doing that. For those planning a visit to Vanuatu, we ask that you keep Vanuatu on your holiday bucket list for just a little bit longer – we guarantee it will be worth the wait.
