Fiji continues to grapple with its Covid-19 outbreak with close to 500 deaths since April - the youngest a six-month-old baby.
Police forensics have removed 141 bodies, all Covid positive, from their homes.
St John Fiji workers who are on the frontline are encouraging families to call for an ambulance before their loved ones become unresponsive.
In just one month, St John Fiji transported 289 patients, and its CEO Ema Bovoro says they could have done a lot more but they didn’t have enough ambulances.
It’s now putting to good use four off-road ambulances and equipment from St John New Zealand.
Bovoro says the ambulances they had were unable to reach cases in some of the inaccessible inland areas.
"We go as far as where the tarseal roads run and then they will shuttle the cases down from their villages in open carriers or open vehicles to meet us at a certain point… With the donated ambulances, we know we can reach into the interior of Fiji,” she said.
The extent of infection in Fiji is unknown as there is no longer mass testing.
However, the country has moved quickly to vaccinate, with more than 95 per cent of the target population receiving at least one AstraZeneca jab.
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