Minister asks parents’ consent for children to be vaccinated and assure stranded passengers they will be coming home, when it’s safe to do so.

Minister of Health and Social Services Hon. Sauni Tongatule is asking parents to provide consent for their children to be vaccinated. Speaking at the annual show day for the village of Tuapa last Saturday Minister Tongatule said that the children 12 to 15-year-olds will be vaccinated in the coming weeks.

According to the Statistics Niue office, there are 141 children in this age group, sixty-five girls and seventy-six boys.

Minister Tongatule also spoke of the hard decision made by Cabinet to suspend passenger flights and asked the families of those passengers stuck in Auckland to assure them that the government is doing all it can to ensure they return home but only when it is safe to do so.

The government’s decision on when it will allow passengers to return is dependent on the Delta covid situation in Auckland that is still in level 4 lockdown.

In the meantime, flights are still flying to Niue weekly but without passengers until Cabinet will decide when they will be allowed to return.

There are at least one hundred passengers mainly local residents stuck in Auckland waiting to return.

Last week Cabinet amended its original decision as announced by the premier during his press conference two weeks ago on the number of passengers allowed per flight, from 26 to 30.

In an email after Cabinet’s meeting on Thursday last week Premier Tagelagi told BCN news that “26 is still the number but have allowed max to 30 to cater for children if any. The cargo and passengers flight continues to fly in as per normal but without incoming passengers till further notice.”

Thirty passengers per flight was the number allowed last year which is based on the capacity that the government’s preferred quarantine facility at Matavai apartments can accommodate.  Home quarantine is not an option.