All inbound passenger flights to Fiji scheduled between Thursday to next Monday have been ceased.

This has been announced by the COVID-19 Risk Mitigation Taskforce, following a new variant of coronavirus in the UK, a number of nations have started imposing travel bans.

The new strain is more transmissible but there is no evidence it is more deadly.

The Fijian Ministry of Health and Medical Services will use this period to conduct an extensive review of its border quarantine processes.

The situation will be reviewed during this period and may be extended.

The Health Ministry says while our current border quarantine protocols have been effective in maintaining Fiji’s COVID-Contained status for 246 days now, if this new strain of the virus is easier to transmit, it could potentially pose an increased risk of inflight transmission to other passengers.

The review will assess what steps Fiji may need to take to proactively mitigate any increased risk from this newly-discovered strain.

Exemptions may be made by the Permanent Secretary for Health for inbound travellers from countries other than those affected by this potentially contagious strain of the novel Coronavirus.

Several repatriation flights have been approved to land up to 24th December.

Any traveller on-board these flights coming from the UK, as well as passengers deemed as travelling contacts of UK-based travellers, will be identified and quarantined separately.

The Ministry has already introduced heightened transmission precautionary measures with regards to personal protective equipment used by all border frontline workers from Monday, 21st December.

Media reports say several European countries and Australia have detected the new, faster-spreading strain.