COVID-19 challenges in Noumea and Papeete
By Nic Maclellan
Hina Montas was making a cup of tea and forgot to turn the gas off. It was only when her partner came home and smelt the gas filling the kitchen, that she realised she’d lost her sense of smell. The young Tahitian had been infected with coronavirus.
“At 33 years old, I felt like I was 90, like an old granny,” Hina recalls. “My eyes were bloodshot and I had problems with my joints. I was having nightmares, because I felt like my skull was going to explode and my heart was going into tachycardia. I had to sleep sitting . . .
