Fiji police deliver groceries, toilet paper amid COVID-19 spike

Fiji on Wednesday began distributing groceries to some households as it urges people to stay at home amid rising infections of the highly transmissible Delta variant of the novel coronavirus.

Authorities posted pictures on social media of bags of supermarket supplies, including packaged food and toilet paper, being delivered to homes around the capital, Suva, as they reinforced calls for people to obey social distancing rules and get vaccinated.

Police and a supermarket 'delivered household packs to Fijians in targeted lockdown areas and home isolation', the government said on Twitter as part of a publicity blitz on COVID-19 safety.

The deliveries were mostly being made in poorer neighbourhoods. "We are here to ensure that Fijians get assistance," the government said.

Since the pandemic began, the country of less than a million people has reported 39 deaths, but most have come since the emergence of the Delta variant in April and case numbers have risen to more than 500 a day, according to the latest figures on Tuesday.

The government has said some patients are seeking treatment too late and the main hospital's mortuary was full. Some victims were also dying at home, it said.

But the government has resisted calls for a lockdown and instead urged people to take precautions.