Telephone operators manning the 161 toll-free line were this morning busy working to assist as many Fijians as possible.

FBC News received reports from families facing difficulties to get through to the toll-free line.

Ministry of Health Permanent Secretary, Dr James Fong has earlier told FBC News that the line crashed last night due to some technical glitches.

When we visited the call centre, operators were busy taking down details from people calling the 158 COVID-19 helpline and the 161 Food ration helpline.

The 161 toll-free number is inundated with calls from Fijians seeking help.

Vodafone Fiji Chief Marketing Officer, Rajnesh Prasad says their team at the call centre is working around the clock to address every caller’s query.

“The lines have been open from 9 this morning, as I said there has been a huge number of calls from this morning, especially from the first 15 to 30 minutes. So there was a huge number of calls and that’s the reason why people have to wait in the queue for a very long time.”

Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama and Attorney General, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum are visiting the call centre to oversee the operation that has been set up by the Department of Communications in collaboration with internet service providers.