3 month old baby dies due to COVID-19 earlier this month

A 3 month old baby from Naitasiri died due to COVID-19 earlier this month.

Permanent Secretary for Health, Dr. James Fong says the infant was referred from Vunidawa Hospital on 30th October with an acute history of cough and fast breathing.

He says the child was medically assessed and stabilized by the attending doctor while a medical retrieval team was sent over to Vunidawa and the baby was transferred to the CWM Hospital.

Dr. Fong says the baby was tested for COVID-19 and was noted to be positive.

His mother reported that he had a cough and was irritable three days before being admitted and developed a fever on the day of presentation.

The baby died on 2nd November, two days after admission.

There have been 695 deaths due to COVID-19 in Fiji, with 693 of these deaths during the outbreak that started in April this year.

The Ministry of Health has also recorded 598 COVID-19 positive patients who died from serious medical conditions they had before they contracted COVID-19.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health has recorded a total of 15 new cases of COVID-19 of which 5 new cases were recorded on Thursday, and 10 new cases in the last 24 hours ending at 8am yesterday morning.