Fiji’s health facilities could easily get overwhelmed if people do not take heed of COVID-safe protocols.
This was the view expressed by Professor Fiona Russell, a pediatrician, epidemiologist, translation researcher and member of the World Health Organization Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine Expert Advisory group.
She warned Fiji was very early on in the outbreak and should take heed of what had happened in countries such as India.
“If COVID takes off in Fiji, then the hospitals may get full and that is if you get sick with anything at all, let alone COVID, then the doctors and nurses may not be able to treat you properly because they’re just so busy treating all the other COVID patients,” Prof Russell said.
“We certainly in Australia were worried about that and so we made plans for that in case that was to occur.”
She praised Fiji’s efforts in trying to contain the disease.
Prof Russell said the seriousness of COVID-19 was evident in how quickly it had spread during the second wave in the country.
