By Litia Cava in Suva

Fiji’s opposition SODELPA leader Viliame Gavoka has condemned Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama and Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum for their “unimaginable recklessness” over the country’s covid pandemic crisis.

The politicians should know “they are held responsible for every covid-19 death for not listening and not doing what is right,” Gavoka said.

Fiji has reported a record 636 new positive covid-19 cases and six deaths in the last 24-hour period ending at 8am today.

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Gavoka said: “To the Prime Minister and the Attorney-General, this is the message — health first.

“The economy is second and will rebound.

“There is no balancing act between the two, as clearly evident by the disaster we have today.”

Gavoka said “the disastrous situation with covid-19” was because of the “we know best attitude” and the recklessness on the part of the Prime Minister and the Attorney-General.

“The current situation could have been avoided if the Prime Minister and Attorney-General listened to repeated calls for a national lockdown to contain the virus within a zone or border and carry out mass vaccination,” he said.

“Instead, the government decided to allow people to travel through borders bragging about its protocols, recklessly taking huge risks at a time when cases were spiking. The permanent Secretary for Health keeps saying, “when people move, the virus moves”.

Sayed-Khaiyum and Bainimarama did not respond to the statement made by Gavoka after a copy was sent via email yesterday.

Litia Cava is a Fiji Times reporter. This article is republished with permission.

This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.