SODELPA recommends Govt to declare COVID-19 as a National Disaster in COVID-19 infected islands

SODELPA is recommending the Government to declare COVID-19 as a National Disaster in Kadavu and other outer islands that are infected by the COVID-19 virus as it is impacting the national health policies and the people in these areas.

In a statement, SODELPA Leader Viliame Gavoka says the report of the increase of infections in these islands is worrisome.

He says activating the national machinery into action, curtailing people’s movement and meeting their basic needs in providing relief supply will also set a time period for reviewing and adjusting strategy for quick recovery.

Gavoka reminds the Government of its maxim, “when you move, the virus moves”, that is now subjugated to its economic policies.

He further says there is a lack of strategy to harmonize Government agencies’ roles in keeping the people safe from COVID-19 and the restoration of normalcy to the community.

He adds while the Minister of Health and his team are working hard to prevent infections, the Minister of Economy is pushing for his economic policies to take precedence over the health of the people.

The SODELPA Leader says the outcome sees Fiji topping the global statistics on infection rate per population of 47,369 infectious cases and 506 deaths.

Gavoka says the party has also highlighted that there is an existing Government policy in place under the communicable disease framework that will include COVID-19 which was under the Public Health Act 1935 and Quarantine Act 1964, and later amended to Public Health Act Cap 111.

He says these Acts should be paramount in times of pandemics.

He adds there are also existing structures and policies that have served the nation well under the Natural Disaster Management Act 1998 dealing with coordination and relief from the government to the disaster areas.

Gavoka highlighted that Fiji could have used this locally designed structure to overcome the coordination issues impacting the distribution of food in the lockdown areas.

Gavoka further says SODELPA also continues calls of a bipartisan approach with the Opposition parties and engaging civil society and other key stakeholders in mapping Fiji’s way out from this pandemic.

Meanwhile, the Permanent Secretary for Health Doctor James Fong has said in his daily updates that all villages in Kadavu remain on movement restrictions enforced by the Police and the Vanua, while the village of Tawava and the seven villages of the Tikina of Yale are on strict lockdown.

He says 7 patients are admitted at Vunisea, four of whom are due to COVID-19 and are in stable condition.

Dr Fong says the outreach teams continue to visit the villages and communities undertaking follow up of primary contacts, monitoring of positive patients and clearance, roll out of COVID-19 vaccination, maternal and child health clinic and vaccination, and consultation with medicine replenishment.

He says the specialist clinical team are providing Obstetric, Medical and Paediatric clinics at Daviqele Health Centre.

Community education and awareness sessions on COVID safe measures and observance of movement restrictions continue, and 14 infringement notices have been issued for ongoing breaches of these restrictions on the island. The Permanent Secretary says daily surveillance and screening are ongoing for the villages in Malolo Island and movement restrictions remain in force.

Dr Fong says the active cases on Naviti Island remain under daily assessment while surveillance continues for the contacts and villagers in the seven settlements and villages.

Movement restrictions remain in force for the villages on the island.

The Permanent Secretary highlighted that they have no near-term plans to change the protocols around inter-island travel.

He says they will be looking at increasing their capacity to move people safely to the North and Maritime Islands using the protocols currently in place.