Fijians in the Nasinu area were the first to receive their food ration packs late yesterday afternoon.

Deliveries were made to families in Makoi, Narere, Kalabu Koro, Laqere, Muanikoso and Navosai.

The Economy Ministry says numerous requests were received through the *161# helpline once it was activated at midday yesterday.

Coordinator, Kamal Gounder says the Suva Nausori lockdown area was divided into 11 zones to ease distribution.

“Our teams have already loaded the food rations into the vehicles and now once the data is coming in, there’s a team from the Ministry of Economy that’s working from home in terms of cleaning the data.”

The assistance was timely for Nasinu residents and for many, these essentials will last until Wednesday.

One hundred Civil servants and 40 vehicles have been dedicated to distribute food ration packs in the Suva Nausori lockdown area.

The Economy Ministry says it has to carefully analyse the data received to ensure requests are genuine.

Acting PS Shiri Gounder had earlier highlighted they have sufficient packs for distribution as this is a demand driven initiative.

Teams will be out again today distributing rations to other communities in the lockdown area.