Siteri Sauvakacolo
7 May, 2021, 10:00 pm
Ashnil Chand with his wife Vikashni Naidu received food assistance from Foundation for Rural Integrated Enterprises and Development (FRIEND) at their home in Lomolomo Lautoka. Picture: REINAL CHAND
A Lomolomo family survived on fresh coconuts for one week because they could not afford to buy groceries.
Vikashni Naidu said her husband used to do general maintenance jobs in Nadi and could not travel to work when the lockdown was announced recently.
“We have been feeding ourselves with fresh coconuts because we simply have nothing left,” she said.
“We finished the last of our groceries my husband bought before the lockdown and we could not afford to buy any more because he was off work.
6 May 2021
COVID-19 continues to spread in Fiji, whilst the nationwide vaccine rollout in Papua New Guinea has commenced, Hugh McClure writes.
There are now 51 active cases of COVID-19 in Fiji, following the detection of the Indian variant of the virus in the country. Fiji has now recorded 121 cases of COVID-19 and two deaths. 55,000 tests have been conducted in the country, with almost 6,000 in the past fortnight alone.
Case numbers continue to rise in Papua New Guinea (PNG), which has now recorded 11,407 cases and 121 deaths. The United Kingdom variant of COVID-19 has now been detected in Guam, which has recorded 7,784 cases and 137 deaths.
Fred Wesley
Image: THE FIJI TIMES
Bula vinaka
Here are some stories that made the headlines in The Fiji Times’ edition for Tuesday, May 4.
PAGE 1
Long battle
The big one on Page 1 is on the impact of COVID-19. The Permanent Secretary for Health and Medical Services, Dr James Fong, has warned that we should be prepared for a long battle against the virus.
Two new cases
Struggling to cope
The second story on Page 1 is about a man struggling to cope in the face of the recent lockdown.
There’s more on Pages 2 and 3.
World Press Freedom Day
Health minister Dr Iferemi Waqainabete talking to the media at the Superdrug Store after a wheelchair handover in Nabua, Suva, on Thurs 15 Apr 2021. Picture: ELIKI NUKUTABU/FT FILE
Kumar Takes in Stranded Family “I saw them and I felt pity for them,” Mr Kumar said by waisea nasokia Daniel Kumar (left), with his new family at his home in Naikabula, Lautoka.
Good Samaritans are hard to come by.
This is true for Daniel Kumar, 51, a taxi driver of Lautoka, who took in a stranded family of Kavagasau, Nadroga, to his house in Naikabula.
The family of four was stranded in Lautoka when it was declared a containment zone just after their young son underwent leg surgery at the Lautoka hospital. They were discharged on the day of that Nadi-Lautoka were declared a containment area on April 19.
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