Fiji cannot afford a total lockdown as it could lead to starvation amongst other social scenarios that we cannot afford.

This comes as we now have the double mutating B1617 variant, which has been causing havoc in India and other parts of the world.

Even before this variant was confirmed, many Fijians, particularly in the Suva-Nausori corridor have been asking for a total lock down.

However, Health Ministry Permanent Secretary, Doctor James Fong, says a total lockdown will have severe repercussions.

“We can ask for a total lockdown, yes. There is another small part to this equation, if I lock you down and you have no access to food, and you can’t eat, what will happen? You will get angry, you will say I don’t care about this virus and you will leave your home and you will break the law, then you will end up with too many people in jail and we back again to square one”.

Doctor Fong says he has been asked numerous questions, on how people could move from one containment area to another.

He says some companies to become essential services started producing mask and sanitizers, and this is a kind of cheap tactic being used.