A-G: More Government Help

Food distribution to targeted lockdown areas has been outsourced to NEWWORLD and Shop N Save, while 17 private clinics will be sharing the load of the public health system.

Attorney-General and Minister for Economy Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum also announced another round of $50 assistance which would open up at the end of the month.

Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said 19 businesses had applied for the food distribution but only two were chosen.

He said a number of food items, toiletries and other household items were added to the list and as part of the deal, the companies would be buying vegetables from Agriculture Marketing Authority.

He said families in lockdown would be provided with up to two deliveries of the food items.

He further announced that staff from these two companies had been trained to distribute food and Shop N Save had already started distribution in Qauia.

He said this would allow medical staff and other key government resources involved in food distribution to do the work required of them.

He said the companies had also agreed to distribute food even with the shortest of notice.

Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said this had led to creation of employment as the two supermarket chains were hiring more people.

Medical clinics

The Government has identified 17 medical clinics in Suva, Nadi, Lautoka and Ba who will be outsourcing some of the services.

Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said this was announced earlier but took some time as some of the medical practitioners were trying to cartel for higher prices.

He said there were 24 applications of which 17 were accepted. He said this service was for people who used to frequent health centres.

He added current patients at medical clinics were not privy to this service as they could afford medical services from private practitioners.

FijiCare Insurance will be providing oversight and reconciling all the medical bills for the service and then billing the Government.

$5 million has been set aside for this.

People will be able to apply for $50 assistance from June 30 and applications will close July 7.

Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said people have time to get their Tax Identification Numbers, Date of Birth, Voter Cards and Birth Registration Numbers.

He said the Government would be announcing further unemployment assistance in the Budget.

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