Faced with the outbreak of the epidemic linked to the Delta variant, New Caledonia will make vaccination compulsory to enter its territory.
The executive said it was determined "not to put the Caledonian population at risk".
New Caledonia, a rare territory free of Covid-19, will make vaccination compulsory to enter its territory, for fear of the Delta variant and after the weakening of its sanitary airlock, the local government announced on Monday. A draft deliberation "imposing compulsory vaccination for anyone entering the territory" will be adopted on Wednesday, said the collegiate government, also announcing "a strengthening of entry criteria, which will become much more rigorous".
This turn of the screw comes at a time when the health protocol currently in force, which imposes 7 days of isolation in a hotel for passengers vaccinated with messenger RNA and 14 days for the unvaccinated, has just been weakened by court decisions.
Several people were able to leave isolation prematurely, without PCR testing or serology carried out in Noumea.
"Do not put the population at risk"
Other appeals being on the way, the pro-independence president of the government, Louis Mapou, this weekend suspended a flight from Tokyo, operated by the local company Air Calédonie International. The passengers, "in the great majority of the military", in fact did not embark in Paris for the first section of the journey to Japan, provided by Air France. "Determined not to put the Caledonian population at risk", the executive recalled that "the only solution remains vaccination". While less than 30% of the eligible population is vaccinated, the authorities fear in the event of the introduction of the virus, a catastrophic scenario similar to that which strikes Polynesia or the West Indies. Last week, the minimum air service to the archipelago, together witha sanitary lock, was extended until December 31.
While a third referendum on independence will take place on 12 December, border protection has sparked a pass of arms between the FLNKS and the "Loyalists" coalition. Criticizing "the State and a contemptuous justice", the separatists evoked the solution "to cancel all the flights of Metropolis" while their adversaries recalled that "without France", there would be neither vaccine, nor airlock, "financed by a subsidy". For its part, the Medef deplored this "politicization" of the Covid-19 and called for a collective preparation plan to "live with the virus which will enter at one time or another".