The Commander of the Republic of Fiji Military Forces, Rear Admiral Viliame Naupoto says the statements made by SODELPA MP, Lynda Tabuya that the military officers caused the original COVID breach, Navy Officers breached COVID borders and the statement made by Simione Rasova about army officers are spreading COVID, are wrong.
He says it seems some are still trying to apportion blame, even though totally wrong, as their contribution to this national effort of trying to control the spread of the virus in Fiji .
Commander Naupoto says to make it worse they are blaming the people who are risking their lives and those of their loved ones, by battling the virus as frontline workers.
He says they are supporting the Ministry of Health in many ways, such as moving positive cases and primary contacts from their homes to isolation facilities, providing security in isolation facilities, delivering food and other items to those in isolation or quarantine facilities, and providing a link between those in isolation and their families.
The Commander adds they are providing support to medical doctors who are conducting swabbing and they also provide military personnel such as nurses, technicians, and administrators to assist in the FEMAT Hospitals.
Naupoto says they even do errands for those in lockdown areas to ensure that they are comfortable during their period of lockdown.
He highlighted that all work done by RFMF personnel is done following the COVID-19 protocols and these protocols are determined, set up, and dictated by the Health Ministry.
He says all his personnel that work in the frontline, stay away from their families for weeks because of the risk of transmitting the virus to their families and the community.
The RFMF Commander says to label the RFMF personnel as “super spreaders” as mentioned by Tabuya and Rasova, is nonsensical.
Naupoto adds they are working together with the Health Ministry and other Government Departments in containing the spread of the virus and no doubt they will succeed.
He says the high number of cases that are being reported from the Navy cluster is a reflection of the environment they work in as ships are very confined and crew members share cabins.
He further says when the first Navy case was detected, the personnel went into lockdown and those Navy officers outside the Navy establishment remained outside which allowed the Health officials to conduct contact tracing and swabbing.
Those onboard ships that tested negative had to stay in with those positive because the ships cannot operate without the individual skillset of each member and they had anticipated the increase in number which occurred in the past few days and the Commander has assured the public that those officers were already in isolation, so there is no risk to community transmission.
Naupoto says when a military nurse tested positive from the Muanikoso cluster, Queen Elizabeth Barracks went into lockdown including their hospital and this has allowed for quick contact tracing and testing and positive cases, and their primary contacts were isolated. He adds there is no factual evidence to suggest that RFMF personnel caused the initial breach since one of the officers was in his room when the sharing of cigarettes was alleged to have happened and this has been proven by CCTV footage.
The RFMF Commander highlighted that the two statements from the Members of Parliament did not allege but accuse RFMF without any factual evidence.
He is demanding that the two MP's apologize to the RFMF frontliners and their families, and all frontline workers who are out there daily, selflessly fighting this invisible and deadly disease.
Naupoto assures the people that the RFMF is committed to the national effort of containing this outbreak and like all other frontliners, they will not stop until the country reaches a COVID Contained status again.
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