Permanent Secretary for Health, Doctor James Fong has confirmed there are 28 new cases as of 6pm tonight and 5 of these cases are under investigation.
23 of the new cases are linked to the existing clusters.
Doctor Fong says 2 new cases are from the Nawaka, Nadi cluster, 1 from the CWM Hospital cluster, 4 from the FICAC cluster and 16 from the Navy cluster.
Doctor Fong says 3 are close contacts of a case under investigation from Caubati announced yesterday, 1 is under investigation with no known links to other cases at this stage, and 1 case from Navosai, Narere was tested after presenting to Valelevu Health Centre with symptoms. The investigation is ongoing into any links between the Narere case and other cases.
The Permanent Secretary for Health says current investigations into the situation at CWM Hospital indicate that so far the transmission was limited to specific areas of the hospital and this has allowed them to maintain services such as maternity and paediatrics, where the testing revealed no positive cases.
He says corridors to the affected areas have been closed.
Doctor Fong says the FEMAT teams will set up field units at the Vodafone Arena and FMF Gymnasium to provide services that will complement the services they can currently provide at the CWM facility.
2 patients have recovered, which means there are now 349 active cases in isolation. There have been 466 cases during the current outbreak that started in April 2021.
Fiji has recorded a total of 536 cases in Fiji since the first case in March 2020, with 183 recoveries and 4 deaths.
43,406 people have received their first dose and 279 have received their second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, AstraZeneca from Monday, 31 May to yesterday.
Permanent Secretary for Health, Doctor James Fong says most of the vaccinations this week have been in the Central and Western Divisions, where the current outbreak is centred.
Doctor Fong says since the beginning of the vaccination effort, a total of 34% of the national population has received one dose of the vaccine, and 3%have received two doses.
He says vaccinations will continue through Saturday and resume again on Monday, 7th June.
Permanent Secretary for Health, Doctor James Fong says while members of the frontline team constitute the group with the highest risk of contracting COVID-19, the medical and military personnel who have tested positive to date are not part of the frontline public health response team doing surveillance and containment effort in the communities.
Doctor Fong says at this time, when we have seen an escalation of cases, the Health Ministry reminds all frontline workers of the higher level of COVID-safe behavior expected by the community and their profession.
He says the same is true for all community leaders and persons in leadership positions in our community in setting an example of a high standard for COVID-safe behavior at all times.
Doctor Fong says they rigorously screen and test the frontline personnel for their safety and the public’s safety precisely because they come into contact with persons who have been exposed to the virus.
He says this ensures that the risk to the public from contact with the contract-tracing and containment teams is eliminated.
Doctor Fong says they expect that all frontline teams will carefully observe established COVID-safe protocol and they appreciate the feedback they get from the public in this regard.
He stresses that COVID-safe behavior needs to be maintained by all sections of the community, but especially those in the frontline of the public health response and clinical response.
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