Pacific Mission trip delayed due to Coronavirus fears

Jacinda Ardern arrives at the Pacific Mission in 2018. Photo / Michael Craig

New Zealand's Foreign Ministry has postponed the upcoming Pacific Mission, scheduled to be led by Foreign Minister Winston Peters, due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The trip was meant to be for just over a week in late March.

Peters and a delegation of businesspeople, MPs and journalists were meant to visit Samoa, Tonga, Niue and Cook Islands.

But in an email, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Mfat) said the trip had been put on ice for at least a month.

"Regretfully, in light of the pressure that the preparation and response to Covid-19 (coronavirus) is placing on our Pacific host country governments, we have decided to defer the Pacific Mission at this time."

A spokesperson for Mfat said officials were considering postponing the mission until April but no final decision had been made yet.

Officials had previously warned the trip might be cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak but following news New Zealand had received its first coronavirus patient last week, the trip was called off.

It is not yet clear if Pacific Island nations contacted the Government to ask that visiting Kiwis did not enter the countries.

New Zealand sends a delegation on the Pacific Mission every year.

As of late, the event's importance has increased as New Zealand embarks upon its Pacific Reset.

The first case of coronavirus was declared in New Zealand last Friday. The infected person is in isolation at Auckland Hospital.

The Director-General of Health, Ashley Bloomfield, said yesterday there were two more cases in New Zealand that had symptoms that might be consistent with Covid-19 coronavirus.

They were not on the Emirates flight that the patient who tested positive was on.
He said he did not know where those two suspected cases were in New Zealand.

About 140 tests have been done and there was still only one positive test. Health professionals were erring on the side of caution with testing, he said.

At her post-Cabinet press conference yesterday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the Government would implement further travel restrictions to passengers coming into New Zealand.

People coming into New Zealand from northern Italy and South Korea would need to self-isolate for 14 days, she said.

People coming from those areas would need to complete a form to enable health officials to contact those individuals to ensure they are in self-quarantine, and what is expected of them.