BIG FNU COVID-19 HELP

■ Hostel made available for frontline medical staff ■ Students in voluntary scheme to aid frontliners

The Fiji National University (FNU) has stepped up to assist the Ministry of Health and Medical Services in its effort to combat the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.

Vice Chancellor Toby Wilkinson said the University was committed to playing its part as a National University to help Fiji in the current outbreak of COVID-19.

Professor Toby said in supporting the work of the Ministry of Health and Medical Services, the University has:

Placed all final-year Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) and Dentistry students on a voluntary scheme to assist the ministry of Health with desk-based activities such as contact tracing and data processing.

In addition to the series of live online webinars (in the iTaukei, Fiji Hindi and English languages) organised by the College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Science to explain the science behind the pandemic and the vaccination programme, there are other practical measures of support that FNU was taking.

Two classrooms at our Nursing Campus are being made available to the Ministry of Health and Medical Services (MOHMS) to assist with data entry and contact tracing operations; the classrooms will be segregated from the rest of campus with separate entrance/exit routes,” he said.

Arranged for a community vaccination centre at the Nasinu campus, to serve the large local population; I visited the facility this afternoon and was pleased to see it fully operational, fully segregated from the rest of the campus, and with strict adherence to all COVID-19 protocols.

Our students that reside in FNU’s Kivi House Hostel will move on Saturday to the Nursing Campus to enable Kivi House to be handed over to MOHMS for housing frontline medical staff working at the adjacent CWM Hospital.