Less than one year since the ground-breaking ceremony of the 2023 Pacific Games Stadium Project in May 2021, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) – H.E Ambassador Li Ming have handed over the first of eight projects under the ‘Pacific Games Stadiums Project’ to the Prime Minister and the Minister responsible for the 2023 Pacific Games, Hon. Manasseh D. Sogavare.
The ceremony was held with health supervision and full compliance of strict COVID-19 protocols applicable to such events.
𝐇𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐆𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟑 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐅𝐢𝐞𝐥𝐝 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐡 𝐒𝐮𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐟𝐮𝐥𝐥 𝐨𝐛𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐭 𝐂𝐎𝐕𝐈𝐃-𝟏𝟗 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐨𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐬.
The handing over ceremony of the PG2023 ‘Practice Track and Field Facility’ at KGVI East proceeded today under health supervision and full compliance of strict COVID-19 protocols applicable to such events.
The date and guest list for the handing over ceremony had been agreed to prior to the current resurgence of the COVID-19 outbreak.
Because of the new surge in COVID-19, permission was sought and granted by the Oversight Committee for the event to proceed under extremely strict COVID-19 protocols to ensure it did not become a super-spreader event for COVID-19 transmission.
Based on instructions from the Ministry of Heath, the event organizers implemented the following measures.
- The number of guests was reduced from the original invitation list of 150 to less than 100 guests
- Only guests who are fully vaccinated were permitted to enter the ceremony venue.
- Only guests that tested negative for COVID-19 the day before or today were admitted to the ceremony venue
- Ministry of Health set up a testing station at the entrance of the venue to conduct RAT tests on all guests that had not been able to do their RAT tests prior to coming to the ceremony. Only those that were negative were admitted to the ceremony.
- All guests were required to wear face Masks. Those without face masks were not permitted to enter the venue.
- Chairs for guests were set at 1.5 to 2 meters apart
- Hand sanitizer stations were set up in multiple locations at the venue for ease of access to all guest.
- The ceremony was convened in an open-air environment under tents for free airflow
The Handover event progressed smoothly with the highlights of the event being (i) the handing over speech from H.E. Ambassador Li Ming, Ambassador of the Peoples Republic of China to Solomon Islands, and (ii) the Acceptance speech by the Honorable Prime Minister of Solomon Islands, Hon Manasseh D. Sogavare, who is also the Minister responsible for the 2023 Pacific Games.
The National Olympic Committee of Solomon Islands put on a special Exhibition event to grace the new all-weather synthetic running track with a 100-metre exhibition dash.
Every guest at the ceremony observed COVID-19 protocols as per the Ministry of Health’s guidelines and instructions.
The Ministry of Health Infection Prevent and Control [IPC] team were on hand to oversee the event to minimize any chance of COVID-19 transmission.
The National Hosting Authority thank all guests for their compliance with instructions from the Ministry of Health and thank the Ministry of Health for its support to enable the important event to take place.
The NHA also thank CCECC, the ‘PG2023 Stadiums Projects’ Construction Company, for putting in place all the arrangements in accordance with the Ministry of Health COVID-19 protocols for the event.
SOL2023 GAMES PRESS RELEASE
