The COVID-19 outbreak in Fiji that started in April 2021 had a serious impact on the country. The New Zealand Government assisted Fiji to respond to the pandemic, including bolstering the health system, providing vaccines and essential equipment, and economic support for communities in need. This page summarises our support.
Medical personnel
- New Zealand personnel have been part of the joint Medical Assistance Teams (MAT) with Australia. Four personnel (a nurse, anaesthetist, logistician, and liaison officer), were in the second team, which arrived in mid-July 2021.
- New Zealand funded the employment of 190 Fiji graduate nurses from tertiary institutions in Fiji to support the Ministry of Health and Medical Services with surge capacity in isolation facilities.
Vaccines
- New Zealand funded 100,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, sourced from the Spanish Government, to help meet Fiji’s immediate vaccine requirements. The vaccines arrived in Fiji on 4 August 2021.
- Funding to support Fiji’s vaccine roll-out (NZ$2 million).
- Communication support to translate public immunisation information into Fijian and Hindi languages.
Essential equipment
- 120 Fisher & Paykel Airvo high flow oxygen machines and consumables.
- 50 Pulse Oximeters for Fiji hospitals to improve monitoring of blood oxygen levels.
- 23 tonnes of personal protective equipment (PPE) deployed directly from New Zealand.
- Emergency funding (NZ$700,000) through the NZ High Commission for Fijian agencies and civil society organisations to distribute locally-sourced PPE, psycho-social counselling support, food ration kits, sanitation supplies and support to frontline workers.
- An additional PCR testing machine and testing supplies to expand Fiji’s testing capacity.
- 600 kits tailored to the needs of mothers and their newborns.
- Emergency response vehicles and ambulances including 4 rental vehicles for immediate use by emergency first responders, and the purchase of 4 fully equipped ambulances, currently being fitted out, to provide an ongoing boost to emergency response capacity.
- Logistics and freight support to deliver 4 specialised Land Cruiser ambulances and medical supplies donated by St John New Zealand.
- 500 locally-made privacy screens for use in isolation facilities.
Economic support
- NZ$40 million emergency budget support in May 2021 as part of the Government’s wider Pacific COVID economic assistance package. This is partly tagged for social support (e.g. welfare payments).
- NZ$10 million to support Fiji’s medium term response (comprising NZ$5 million for the Fiji Government to deliver COVID-19 operations such as the essential equipment noted above, and NZ$5 million for local civil society organisations to mitigate poverty in vulnerable communities). This is supporting six Fijian civil society organisations to deliver food, social protection and livelihood support to over 50,000 people from vulnerable, economically disadvantaged and at-risk households who stand to be most affected by the social and economic impacts of the pandemic.
Ministerial press releases
Please see Ministers’ statements and announcements about New Zealand’s support to Fiji.
New Zealand’s support for Fiji’s COVID-19 response continues with vaccine delivery, operational support(external link) – 3 August 2021
New Zealand boosts support to Fiji for COVID-19 impact(external link) – 21 June 2021
New Zealand to donate 250,000 courses of COVID-19 vaccines(external link) – 29 April 2021