‘No jabs, no job’: Fiji to make vaccine compulsory
SUVA: Fiji has announced plans to make the coronavirus vaccine compulsory for all workers as it battles a runaway outbreak of the Delta variant, with the prime minister issuing a blunt message: “no jabs, no job”.
Frank Bainimarama said all public servants in the South
Pacific nation of 930,000 must go on leave if they have not had their first injection by August 15 and would be dismissed if they did not receive their second by November 1.
Private sector employees must have their first jab by August 1, with individuals facing hefty fines if they fail to comply and companies threatened with being shut down.
“No jabs, no job — that is what the science tells us is safest and that is now the policy of the government and enforced through law,” Bainimarama said in a national address late on Thursday.
The hardline policy comes amid government frustration at the widespread flouting of virus safety measures such as social distancing and wearing masks, blamed in part for a huge spike in infections.
Until April, Fiji had recorded no community cases for a year but a quarantine breach saw the highly contagious Delta variant, first detected in India, rapidly gain a foothold, with the country now recording 700plus new cases a day.
The under-resourced health system has been stretched to breaking point, with the country’s largest hospital in Suva this week saying its mortuary was at capacity and urging the families of virus victims to collect their loved ones.