Covid-19 in Vanuatu, the first month

Covid-19 arrives in Vanuatu, almost exactly 2 years after it first appeared in the rest of the world

 

On March 4, the first case of Covid-19 was found in Vanuatu.  Yes, there were cases found here in quarantine before, so no big deal.  But this meant Covid-19 was now here, out in the wild, and inevitably, would spread.  The government quickly established a curfew from 6pm to 6am, where nobody was to be out.

A curfew has an immediate chilling and dampening effect.  Although people were free to go out between 6am and 6pm, Port Vila was a ghost town.

Even though we knew it would happen one day, the reality of Covid-19 still scared people.  And how it escaped here at all is a controversial topic.  Supposedly, eyewitnesses at a quarantine facility told of a high-ranking government official who used his position to sneak out to go visit his friends and maybe girlfriend too.  The Opposition Leader filed a complaint.  Seems that everyone lost their memories all of a sudden, no charges filed, etc.  Regardless, now, Covid-19 is here.

The government announced a 6pm-6am curfew, and many people misunderstood what it meant, driving them into full-on panic mode.  People bought multiple large bags of rice, or loaded up their pickup truck with their belongings and left Port Vila (or tried to).  Our small shop, even though we had to close 4 hours early at 6pm because of the curfew, had one of our best sales days ever, just because people misunderstood what the curfew meant.

There was a long line of these loaded pickups trying to go out of town via the east side ring road.  The line went back all the way to the USP roundabout, and at times even past that.  But the VMF had a road block setup at the Tassiriki roundabout, and at 6pm, people were forced to turn back.

Even if the panicky drivers got through, some villages setup up impromptu road blocks, trying to keep people from going to "narasaed", or the north side of Efate.  The government quickly ordered the police and VMF to remove any roadblocks on public roads, though many road blocks on private roads and driveways remain, a month later.

If I try to think critically and seriously how the government handled communication and status updates over the past month, I just get angry.  Instead I just characterize it as a clown show, and don't think about it more deeply than that.  And...Anger gone!

Schools were all closed immediately, and still are. I think church gatherings were prohibited too, a big deal here in this Christian country.  The government released a list of "essential" businesses that would be allowed to operate during non-curfew hours (6am-6pm).  But from the start the list was missing a number of services any reasonable person would consider "essential".  And then government keep updating the list.  Perhaps because of that mercurial list, that only raised more questions than it answered, the curfew was changed to allow all businesses to be open during curfew.

Above, the Tana Russet mall having a tough time.  The restaurants were open for takeout only, but there were only a couple other people there.  The legs on the turned-up chairs looked like spikes to me, a warning to keep out.  Not easy to run a restaurant these days.

A 6pm curfew though, means that most businesses have to be closed by 5, as they have to leave time at the end of the day for staff to get home. Add to that, fewer buses are on the road, and those that are, have a 5-passenger limit.  It is harder for employees to get home now.

Everything still feels upside down.  It is difficult to capture how pervasive the changes are.  Oh yea, most government offices just closed right away.  But I think I read some are supposed to reopen tomorrow, on April 5. 

The image above shows the new big date night under Covid curfew.  In by 6pm, we sit out on the driveway and enjoy some kava, vodka cruisers, avocado, banana, music, and the night air -- just the two of us.

On March 29, I tested positive for Covid-19.  (We've both had the two shots + a third booster.)  Assuming Hellen was also positive, we self-quarantined for the requisite 7 days, with our quarantine ending at 12:00pm today.  There are free tests available at the public hospital, if you have the time to wait in line.  I had mine done at Novomedical for the premium 5,000VT fee (about $50 USD), so I wouldn't have to wait.  Like I said, it is a safe assumption that Hellen has it too, so why test us both?  All you can do is quarantine anyway, so that's what we did.

I'd describe it as similar to a flu, though I didn't have any of the total body ache that I had with the flu.  Covid-19 gave me a high fever and the worst headache I've ever had.  The headache was brutal on Monday and took until late Wednesday to be fully gone.  I had diarrhea all week too.  Hellen didn't have a fever or a headache, more of an all-encompassing feeling of "the blahs" that lasted most of the week. Nice to be done with it, but honestly it wasn't that bad.  Had it just been a usual flu, I would have gone back to work already.

We look forward to going outside more tomorrow.