Valuable

 

V is for…Vax

 

We got our booster shots a week ago at a Lautoka health centre. We went in with our Indian passports and our Bahraini vaccine certificates and drove the staff out of their minds. Who takes the first two shots in one country, goes back to their home country, does not take the booster there and then blithely relocates unboostered to a third country during a pandemic?! Insane or what?

 

We explained that the Indian system has not yet developed an option for returning NRIs to register, (story of my life, btw! the step-motherly treatment of NRIs covers entire sectors, not just vaccines)  and anyway India isn’t giving boosters to everyone yet. Boosters are only available for 60+ so we don’t qualify. Incidentally the Bahraini app on my phone keeps flashing me reminders about how I am due for a booster since November last, they are boosting adults after six months. After some more explaining and patiently waiting while our details were entered in three separate systems, we got the shots and the cards which are now more valuable than rubies.

 

Fiji health infrastructure is basic, expats get health insurance to cover emergency medical travel into Australia/NZ as a matter of course. The Lautoka primary health centre reminded me of the health centres in Northern Nigeria 40 years ago. The same unplush wooden benches in the waiting rooms, whirring pedestal fans, no token systems, long waiting times. The road in front crumbling away to a dirt track, the parking lot overgrown with weeds. The nursing staff in contrast were excellent, both courteous and efficient. Suavely professional.

 

With my first shot of Astra-Zeneca I had a pretty severe backlash - fever, chills, headache, delirium, totally wiped out for a day. Second shot was a breeze. But this booster was Moderna, so I expected my system would react the same way as the first time, and took the pills before the reaction got fully underway. But even so I felt feverish, washed out and spent the next day in bed.

 

For all its lack of sophisticated healthcare facilities, Fiji has done a pretty good job of the vaccination. Around 76% of the total population has got at least one dose, 70% have got the full protocol.  Fiji went into lockdown, twice I think, with the one in April ‘21 being prolonged for two months. It affected the tourism sector, as also the availability of goods, business slumped.

 

The quarantine restrictions have now been lifted for fully vaccinated travellers. But there are testing requirements in place, both pre-boarding and post-landing. Masks are generally not being worn, and I have somehow happily transitioned to a maskless state without much unease.  I thought after nearly two years of constant mask wearing I’ll have trouble reverting back to normalcy. But thankfully, that hasn’t been an issue.

 

Victory over the virus is still some way away – have you seen the vaccination trackers for Nigeria (11%)  or Egypt (44%)? Africa as a whole (21%)? abysmal doesn’t begin to sum it! Till the world can vaccinate a large chunk of its entire population, the pandemic will not be over. 

View from the balcony

A-Z Challenge 2022