French Polynesia Covid-19 pandemic claims another 13 lives

8:27 am on 10 September 2021

A further 13 people in French Polynesia have died of Covid-19, raising the death toll to 535.

The health ministry said 311 Covid-19 patients are in hospital and 54 of them in intensive care.

Case numbers are no longer compiled and released by the authorities who said they would be inaccurate as many people carried out self-tests.

Most of the territory is in a four-week lockdown and curfews are in place to slow the spread of the virus.

Medical services are stretched because of a rapid spread of Covid-19

Medical services are stretched because of a rapid spread of Covid-19 Photo: FB French High Commission in French Polynesia

In the past week, almost 200 healthcare professionals, firefighters and others have arrived from France to help dealing with the pandemic, which has reached at least 45 islands.

The former president Gaston Flosse has, meanwhile, again rebuked both the President Edouard Fritch and the French High Commissioner Dominique Sorain, accusing them of mismanaging the pandemic and of concealing the depth of crisis.

He said the two should go.

In a statement, his party said the official number of Covid-19 fatalities excludes those who died at home or in the outer islands, suggesting about 100 deaths have not been counted.

It said people are angry that nothing was done to prevent that their dead relatives end up being stored in refrigerated containers.

The statement said the choice all along was either saving lives or supporting the hotels and the government chose the latter.

In July last year, the borders were reopened for quarantine-free travel and within weeks, Covid-19 spread to infect well over 40,000 people.