Permanent Secretary for Health, Doctor James Fong confirms 3 unvaccinated people have died from COVID-19 and there are 352 new COVID cases for the 24 hour period that ended at 8am yesterday.
A full breakdown of areas of interest has been published online on the Ministry’s COVID-19 dashboard.
You can check out the link on our website, fijivillage.
The first COVID-19 death is a 54-year-old man from Naikurukuru, Lami. He was declared dead on arrival by the attending medical officer at the CWM Hospital Emergency Department.
This means that he either died at home or on the way to the hospital.
His family reported that the individual had been unwell for at least a week with fever, headache and generalized weakness.
He was not vaccinated.
Doctor Fong says the second COVID-19 death was a 62-year-old woman from Davuilevu who died at home.
Her family reported that she had fever, weakness and a reduced appetite for at least three days.
She was not vaccinated.
The third COVID-19 death was a 60-year-old woman from Vatuwaqa.
She presented to the FEMAT Field Hospital in severe respiratory distress and died on the same day.
She was not vaccinated. Doctor Fong says there have been 2 more deaths of COVID-19 positive patients.
However, these 2 deaths have been classified as non-COVID deaths by doctors as their deaths have been determined to be caused by pre-existing medical conditions.
There have now been 33 deaths due to COVID-19 in Fiji, with 31 of these deaths during the outbreak that started in April this year.
Fiji has also recorded 15 COVID-19 positive patients who died from the serious medical conditions that they had before they contracted COVID-19.
There have been 78 new recoveries reported since the last update, which means that there are now 5,178 active cases in isolation.
There have been 6,443 cases during the outbreak that started in April 2021.
Fiji has recorded a total of 6,513 cases since the first case was reported in March 2020, with 1287 recoveries.
318, 830 adults in Fiji have received their first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine while 52,592 have received their second doses.
Permanent Secretary for Health, Doctor James Fong says this means that 54 percent of the target population has received at least one dose and 9 percent are now fully vaccinated nationwide.
Meanwhile Doctor Fong says the 7-day average of new cases per day has increased to 383 cases per day or 433 cases per million population per day.
He says as expected, with the increasing case numbers they are also seeing increasing number of people with severe disease, and more deaths in the Suva-Nausori containment zone.
Doctor Fong says it remains a serious concern that some people with severe disease come to a medical facility only in the late stages of their illness.
He says they are still sadly seeing people with severe disease die at home or on the way to hospital, before the medical teams have a chance to administer what could potentially be life saving treatment.
Doctor Fong says the severe symptoms of COVID-19 include difficulty breathing, persistent pain or pressure in the chest, severe headache for a few days, new confusion, inability to wake or stay awake; and pale, gray, or blue-coloured skin, lips or nail beds.
If you or a loved one have any of these symptoms please go immediately to your nearest medical facility.
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