John Pulu sat down with Sela Alo, General Manager of PMN, to hear his journey of surviving Covid-19 – part of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples’ half-hour Covid-19 Special for the NZ Pacific community.
Sela tested positive for Covid-19 at the end of March after experiencing symptoms including a cough and feeling run down.
“The first thing that came to mind was my family, making sure they were OK,” says Sela.
His wife and children got tested – all thankfully returning a negative result – and Sela spent the next couple of weeks quarantining alone.
“You just stay in isolation. You don’t put yourself and other people at risk by going outside of that.”
He says his family and faith kept him going.
“[God’s] been there when I’ve had my chest opened up for open heart surgery, when I had a stroke, when I had epilepsy, when I had seizures… He was there with me throughout all that time, so I had no doubt that he would be with me during this time.
Sela says listening to the advice of health professionals and receiving their support was equally important.
“I have to take my hat off to our frontline staff, our health professionals, all the people who are at the testing sites at the moment in their full PPE gear.
“These guys are putting their lives at risk to test and swab people.”
He gave a simple message to conspiracy theorists.
“You may not wanna believe what the politicians are saying around this. That’s your view. If you don’t believe them about what’s happening with Covid-19, take it from me – it’s real. I’ve been through it and I got through the other side. It’s real.
“Take it from health professionals who actually know, who are in the business. Ask them. Ask them if coronavirus, or Covid-19, is real. They’ll tell you.”
His message to the community?
“Don’t be complacent. Look after yourselves, the people in your care, and know that people outside are looking after you as well.”
Watch the full interview with John Pulu in the Covid-19 Special above (interview starts at 7:03)
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