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ADF personnel to remain in quarantine until January 8th

December 31, 2020 4:54 pm

Australian Defence Forces vessel HMAS Adelaide will remain in a cordoned off area near Galoa Island in Bua until the 600 personnel on board complete their 14 days COVID-19 quarantine period. [Source: Australian Embassy]

Australian Defence Forces vessel HMAS Adelaide will remain in a cordoned off area near Galoa Island in Bua until the 600 personnel on board complete their 14 days COVID-19 quarantine period.

Commissioner Northern Division Uraia Rainima says the men will be there until January 8th, when the quarantine period finishes.

Six days has been covered when they were sailing to Fiji, leaving Brisbane on December 24th and arriving in Fiji on the 30th.

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The remaining eight days will be served while berthed near Galoa.

Rainima says the ADF personnel are scheduled to build the temporary school facility for Galoa Island Primary School before the move to mainland Vanua Levu.

The ship is here at the request of the Fijian government to provide infrastructure support for damaged schools so children can start the new school year on time.

“We have set a target that we hand over school facilities to the Ministry of Education by the 11th of January. So, that is our target RFMF engineers are currently working on some of the schools around the mainland. We will get joined by our ADF partners – after the 8th – that is after they test negative again.”

They will be under the strict surveillance of the RFMF and the Ministry of Health.

The HMAS Adelaide is carrying specialised personnel, equipment and provisions including four helicopters, four landing crafts and additional small boats, army engineer and construction teams, a primary health care team and a small boat platoon.