Since the first positive Covid-19 case was announced in February, more than 25 food parcels have been packed and distributed to affected residential households on Rarotonga.

Danielle Nimeti from the Cook Islands Red Cross Society (CIRCS) said they had delivered food packages to various Puna Health Clinics on the island.

Included in the parcels are fresh vegetable produce, rice, bread, eggs, meat, dry goods and hygiene packs.

According to Nimeti, the Ministry of Internal Affairs (INTAFF) places the orders for the shopping, collects and delivers the goods to the Red Cross center.

“Here we do the packing of different items into the various bags, Prime Foods packs the meat and delivers the frozen goods to us on the same day of delivery, we then distribute the parcels to the Puna and the Te Marae Ora (TMO) nurses take these to the households,” said Nimeti.

Te Marae Ora also supplies a bag of contents to homes affected by Covid-19, these contain: an infrared thermometer, finger pulse oximeter, mask packs, paracetamol, a booklet - managing Covid-19 at home English and Maori, a Covid-19 home isolation diary, managing stress information booklet, and a INTAFF welfare pamphlet.

Last week the TMO Health Intelligence Unit received a water cooler, microwave and kitchen items from Red Cross and would like to extend their appreciation to the organisation for the ongoing support for contact tracing, Health Intelligence Unit outputs, Call Centre assistance and the service of contacting “close contacts” of positive cases.

The five Puna Health Clinics on Rarotonga are located in Tupapa, Matavera, Titikaveka, Blackrock and Nikao are now open.