Despite all safety measures it looks like the opening of borders resulted in the second Covid wave we dreaded. In the last month 130 cases were recorded in Tahiti–at the moment the counter hops up by a dozen on a daily basis. Of course that’s nothing compared to other countries, but still very worrying in a large island nation with 67 inhabited islands, but only one big, modern ICU unit in Tahiti…
Looking at supermarkets and other shops with masks and disinfectant everywhere we are still convinced that the locals are doing their best to contain the spreading of Covid-19, but apparently people visiting bars and restaurants have been acting less responsible. We read on the local news that a big ‘cluster’ that spread from papeete (77 cases) was also exported to France (51 people returning from Fr. Poly tested positive)–ironically enough the centre of this outbreak was gendarmes celebrating the end of their time here (of all people!!!) at a restaurant ignoring social distancing and masks…
We fear yet another lock-down with an inter-island travel ban, so we would like to leave Tahiti as quickly as possible. My voluntary quarantine of 7 days is over, we have stocked up on goodies and Pitufa’s basically ready for a passage, but so far there’s no weather window in sight…
