35 new COVID-19 cases, 17 cases are from CWM Hospital

There are 35 new cases of COVID-19.

22 cases were recorded yesterday morning while 13 new cases were announced last night.

All the new cases announced last night are from existing clusters.

7 cases are from the Queen Elizabeth Barracks cluster, 3 cases are from the CWM Hospital cluster and 3 cases are from the Nawaka, Nadi cluster.

Permanent Secretary for Health, Doctor James Fong says 14 patients have recovered, which means there are now 323 active cases.

There have been 438 cases since this outbreak started in April 2021.

Fiji has had 508 cases in total since the first case was reported in March 2020, with 181 recoveries and 4 deaths.

70,807 COVID-19 laboratory tests have been conducted since this outbreak started in April, with 113,668 conducted in total since testing started in early 2020.

Of the 22 cases of COVID-19 recorded yesterday morning – 14 are cases from the CWM Hospital cluster and there is one new case that is yet to be linked to other cases or clusters and is currently under investigation.

Doctor Fong says the case under investigation is an individual from Caubati and was swabbed at the Valelevu stationary screening clinic after presenting with symptoms.

He says on Tuesday night they conducted extensive swabbing at CWM Hospital.

The testing of those swabs has revealed 14 new positive cases.

Swabbing continues and they will be awaiting more results.

They are still in the process of evaluating the data, and the results of testing will determine the best way to secure CWM Hospital while continuing to safely provide medical services to Fijians who access health services at the hospital.

Currently, CWM is not providing non-emergency outpatient services, including the special outpatients department, and the Acute Medical Ward, Acute Surgical Ward, Beqa Ward, and ANZ Ward remain on lockdown.

Emergency services are continuing at CWM Hospital.

Doctor Fong says the Emergency Department is functioning and inpatient pediatrics and obstetrics services are continuing.

The Maternity Ward and Children’s Wing have developed stringent screening areas in the Antenatal Clinic area and the Children's Outpatient Department for patients requiring urgent admission.

All-access to and from other parts of the hospital has been closed off to the Maternity and Children’s Wing. CWM hospital contingency plans for emergency scenarios have been finalised.

All the other new cases are linked to existing clusters.

Doctor Fong says all of these cases are stable and are either in isolation facilities or home isolation.

4 cases are linked to the Navosai, Narere cluster, 2 cases to the Kinoya cluster and 1 case to the Navy cluster.

The Health Ministry screened 5,882 people in the stationary screening clinics of which 26% were screened.

The mobile teams screened 10,436 and of which 18.5% were screened.

Doctor Fong reassures the public that all the medical and security forces who have turned positive are not part of the public health team directly engaging the public in the containment and community surveillance programs.

Meanwhile, he has expressed the Ministry’s appreciation of the private sector, especially those in the hotel and accommodation industry, who stepped forward to assist them during these difficult times.

He says they could not have had an effective COVID response unless they could ensure the welfare and safety of their own health care workers who were at the centre of the Ministry’s COVID-19 response.

He says because they are out in the community finding, interviewing and testing people who may have come into contact with an infected person, they have had to isolate them from their families for weeks now.

Doctor Fong says they could not have done that without the support of the hotel industry, which stepped up and provided COVID-safe and affordable accommodation for the staff.

He says it has been a great service to the country.