Villagers in remote Fiji plead for food, refuse Covid-19 vaccine

Villagers in Fiji's remote islands, hit with the Covid-19 outbreak, are seeking assistance, community workers there have revealed.Villagers in Fiji's remote islands, hit with the Covid-19 outbreak, are seeking assistance, community workers there have reve

Two districts in the Yasawas, west of the country, have sought help for households in isolation that have no access to basic food supply.

Tourist hotspots Naviti and Nacula are both experiencing an increase in Covid-19 cases, are seeking assistance for households in isolation that have no access to basic food supply.

The Government confirmed a total of 121 new cases and nine deaths in the last 24 hours.

This takes the total of cases to 12,948, with the death toll at 575.

There have been a total of 178 cases reported on Naviti, with 88 in isolation - five of them recorded in the last 24 hours.

Movement restrictions remain for all villages on the island.

Nacula reported 51 new cases in the villages of Bukama, Dalomo, Teci and Yasawa-i-Rara, with a total of 80 cases on the island.

The Health Ministry said all the patients are isolating at home and monitored by the clinical teams.

Strict movement restriction remains in place for the whole island, it said.

Naviti District official Meciusela Vuli said families in isolation were surviving on food supplied by other villagers.

He said everyone was sharing what they could with the families in isolation.

"Those who are sick are cared for by the villagers as well and we supply them with three meals every day.

"But it's their primary contacts that we are worried about because a lot of them have to fend for them."

Vuli said they were also in quarantine and were not allowed to leave their homes.

He said they couldn't reach their farms or get supplies from their families on the main island of Viti Levu.

He said the district had requested food rations from the government.

Nacula District official Lavenia Naivalu said they were also worried about the growing cases which would result in an extended lockdown.

"If we have a longer lockdown, we will run out of supplies," she said.

"We had food rations delivered to our seven villages last week but we know that will run out if we keep having new cases.

"We need help getting supplies especially for those families in isolation."

Meanwhile, some villagers in Naviti are refusing to take their second jab.

Vuli said attempts by officials from the Ministry of Health to convince the villagers to take the second jab had proven futile.

"We have been visiting these villagers to ask them to change their minds but they have told us they will not take the second dose," he said.

"Most of them have said that they will not take the vaccine because of their religious beliefs.