Fiji should go for a hard lockdown. That’s the feeling from Pacific Covid-19 Advisor Dr Api Talemaitoga, who spoke with Marama T-Pole on this morning’s Tagata Pasifika talanoa.
Fiji’s death toll continues to climb amid the country’s devastating outbreak of the highly contagious Delta variant of Covid-19.
“It is really sad,” says Talemaitoga.
“I think we should go for a hard lockdown for a short time in Fiji, and I don’t personally buy the fact that it’s difficult to manage. We’ve got an army there, we’ve got a police force; we should be able to do it.
“The problem is that a lot of the population are not getting the message and not following the health advice.”
In New Zealand, Talemaitoga has been involved in key Covid-19 messages for the Pacific community in Pacific languages. He says messages need to be communicated by people “who look and sound like you”.
“We’ve tried with Fijian doctors working overseas to start doing Zoom conferences with our community explaining it in the language, in Fijian, how important it is to follow the public health messages to stay at home.”
However, he says many people are still not following that advice, and more work needs to be done to cut through.
Watch the full talanoa here, where Talemaitoga also talks about the vaccine rollout in New Zealand and the latest Delta variant case in Wellington.
