Expats and International Students Eligible for Vaccine, Dr Fong says

HEALTH MINISTRY WORKING ON WAY FOR THEM TO REGISTER WITH DIFFERENT SET OF REQUIREMENTS THAN FIJIANS

Expatriates and international students who are currently working and studying in Fiji will also be eligible to register for the COVID-19 vaccines here.

This was confirmed by the Permanent Secretary for Health and Medical Services Dr James Fong yesterday.

However, Dr Fong said the Ministry of Health and Medical Services was working on a way to ensure that they register with a different set of requirements as they would not be accessible to a Birth Registration Number that Fijians have access to.

“They will be eligible to register, but the online registration system would not work for them,” Dr Fong said.

“They have to do it face-to-face because we will have to look for a certain way that could register them; we are looking at a way by means of a number that they would be given to be able to register them,” he said.

He said expatriates and international students working and studying here will also be eligible for the vaccines that the ministry currently rolls out.

“Definitely, they can also be vaccinated here, it’s just that we would need to have certain requirements set out for them,” Dr Fong said.

The roll out of the second phase of vaccines will begin on Tuesday,

April 6.

Approximately 50,000 people will be eligible to receive this two-dose vaccine on this second roll out.

RFMF troops deployed to missions are vaccinated

Dr Fong also confirmed that members of the Republic of Fiji Military Forces (RFMF) leaving Fiji on overseas missions were vaccinated. “These personnel are part of frontline workers and these are the people that are exposed to the risk that COVID-19 comes with,” he said.

“They are vaccinated here before they leave and if they cannot get their second dose here; there is a medical team that is enlisted with them so we just put the vaccines in the cold storage and then they can get their second shot when they are eligible wherever they are.”