The following is part of the Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama’s address on the latest situation in Tropical Cyclone Yasa’s relief efforts.

I wanted to kick-off the new year with the state-of-play on our response to Cyclone Yasa.

Relief has reached every affected community in the Northern and Eastern Divisions with more than 37,000 food ration packs and non-food items now in the hands of Fijian families.

The road network is more or less back online, with 161 roads and four jetties re-opened.

All metered areas in the Northern and Eastern divisions have had water restored.

We are steadily restoring access to water everywhere, with another 12 trucks dispatched to the North to cart water to impacted areas.

More than 110 EFL personnel, materials and 40 vehicles departed Viti Levu last Thursday to assist with restoration works in Labasa, Savusavu and Ovalau. Power is being brought back online as safely as can be done.

Around 900 households have received seedlings to help rehabilitate their damaged farms. That support will continue on a needs-only basis as assessments complete.

Our health teams have been busy preventing the spread of infectious diseases that all-too-often thrive in the aftermath of severe weather events.

To ensure schools are ready open for the new team, our teams are clearing and disinfecting all schools used as evacuation centres to ready them to re-open.

That’s the latest update — we’ll keep you informed as our response shifts into the next phase.

We have a plan, and we have a united team ready to lead us to a recovery.

Vinaka vakalevu and God Bless you all!

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