Children also part of protest in Qauia
Children were used to stage a protest in Qauia yesterday after 14 days of lockdown in the informal settlement in Lami was completed over the weekend.
Some of the placards held by the children wrote: ‘Mum & Dad need to work! Please open the border’, ‘We need to go to work’ and ‘Open the border please’.
A protest was staged at the beginning of the Qauia Settlement lockdown because residents were refusing to get swabbed and vaccinated.
However, this was quelled by Police and the Republic of the Military Forces.
Information gathered inside Qauia by Fiji Sun has pointed this to being politically motivated.
Leader of SODELPA Viliame Gavoka said Qauia residents were to have sent petitions to the Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama showing their frustration.
He denied that the party nor any of its members prompted the residents to stage a protest.
Mr Gavoka said the issue was not so much the lockdown but the failure of the authorities to pass on information such as the results of tests and certifications to show whether the people who have been swabbed were positive or negative.
He said it seemed that the template in lockdown areas was for authorities to forget about them.
He said he received a similar call from parents of university students staying at Bethany Hostel in Suva.
He said one student had tested positive, she along with her five friends who were considered primary contacts had been isolated. Mr Gavoka claimed that these students had not been contacted by authorities.
In terms of food distribution, the Government food packs which contain a large amount of food and non-food items have been distributed at least three times to some families.
According to the Ministry of Economy, Qauia has 550 households, 240 of these have more than six family members while 40 households have more than 12 people in each home.
The ministry has confirmed that the Qauia borders would only be opened once the entire community has tested negative and there is assurance that a resurgence would not occur.