No natural disasters recorded in history have claimed more lives than the COVID-19 pandemic, according to world’s largest disaster response network, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).
While launching the World Disasters Report in Nadi last month, the IFRC Pacific office in Fiji revealed that an estimated over 6.5 million people died from the pandemic.
Head of the IFRC Pacific Office Katie Greenwood said the virus took a huge toll on the Pacific’s health systems.
“We saw in the Pacific especially in Fiji, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea how this ruthless virus overwhelmed hospitals and health systems,” she said.
“As COVID took off across around the world and the Pacific closed borders for a sustained period, it was critically important to get vaccines in the arms of people who were unvaccinated prior to case loads taking hold.
“Increasing vaccination rates in the Pacific was crucial to prevent death and suffering and this was only possible through building trust, tackling inequality and working with global partners, local authorities and communities to perform lifesaving work.”
According to the IFRC, it reached more than 1.1 billion people over the past three years to keep them safe from the virus.
“During that time, a theme that emerged repeatedly was the importance of trust.
“When people trusted safety messages, they were willing to comply with public health measures that sometimes separated them from their loved ones in order to slow the spread of the disease and save lives. Similarly, it was only possible to vaccinate millions of people in record time when most of them trusted that the vaccines were safe and effective.”
Ms Greenwood said in the Pacific, it was critical time to ramp up vaccinations while dispelling myths and rumours to help people understand the importance of being protected.
“We knew vaccines prevented people from getting sick, helped stretched health systems cope and crippled economies get back on track.”
