Permanent Secretary for Health, Doctor James Fong says there are currently 65 definite active cases of COVID-19 in Suva, however they are sure that this is an underestimate and there are many more cases.
He says they have been informed that there was a particular restaurant in which there was a Christmas party and 4 attendees have been found positive.
Dr. Fong says they are currently doing their usual contact tracing operations, however, they are grateful that a number of attendees, some of whom are symptomatic, have presented themselves for testing.
He adds this is not unexpected as COVID safe measures with vaccination reduces the risk of getting infected but it does not remove that risk.
The Permanent Secretary further says current indications are that all those who tested positive are stable and that all attendees of the function were fully vaccinated.
He say they remain very confident that there are other events and gatherings happening throughout the weekend and expect cases to escalate.
Dr. Fong says they also expect that if fully vaccinated, many of these persons will have significant protection against hospitalization and severe disease.
Permanent Secretary for Health Doctor James Fong says they are working on the assumption that the Omicron variant is already in Fiji and is being transmitted within the community.
He says they expect that genomic sequencing results of positive samples sent overseas will bear this out.
The Permanent Secretary says they are expecting escalated levels of community transmission to be more evident over the ensuing weeks.
Doctor Fong says cases of COVID 19 continue to be identified among travellers into Fiji.
He adds all these cases were in fully vaccinated individuals who tested negative on their 3-day pre-departure PCR test and are currently in isolation within hotels, with protocols that have been well-rehearsed in the lead up to border opening and continue to be overseen by Health Ministry staff in the Western Division.
The Permanent Secretary adds all their positive samples will be sent to their partner laboratory in Australia for genomic sequencing.
He stresses that if a variant is transmissible enough, stringent border and community measures will only delay the inevitable entry and spread of current and future variants of the COVID-19 virus.
Doctor Fong says to protect ourselves, our loved ones, and our country, we must all get vaccinated when it is our turn and continue to be strict with our COVID safe measures.
Permanent Secretary for Health Doctor James Fong says the possibility of reintroducing earlier curfews, placing more restrictions on gatherings and escalating masking mandates is always under consideration.
He stresses that they however plead with the public to demonstrate good sense and apply these restrictions on themselves without the need for directives and strong enforcement actions to remind them of the COVID safe measures.
Doctor Fong adds moving forward, in dealing with the current situation the Ministry of Health and Medical Services will continue to focus on vaccination, suppressing transmission, protecting health services and monitoring the key indicators which is cases and transmission/testing and test positivity/severity/hospitalizations/deaths to inform local decision-making and adjust divisional and sub-divisional action plans.
He further says they will continue to roll out the booster dose program for everyone over the age of 18 years.
Doctor Fong says they will continue to test if you develop any COVID-19 like symptoms that include any of the following: cough, runny nose, nasal congestion, sneezing, fatigue/extreme tiredness, loss of taste or smell, headache, aches, and pains, sore throat, fever, diarrhea, red eyes, skin rash. Please visit a screening clinic nearest you or call 158.
Doctor Fong is stressing that testing will be prioritized for high-risk individuals; vulnerable and symptomatic persons and household contacts.
This includes people over the age of 50 years, with underlying health conditions: diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease, asthma, are obese or are pregnant.
He says their contact tracing protocols are being escalated, therefore, please keep your careFIJI app switched on when you are out of your house and scan your QR code when entering or leaving any premises
Doctor Fong adds both quarantine for close contacts of cases and isolation for positive cases will be for 10 days duration and there is no need for exit testing unless a close contact becomes symptomatic during quarantine.
He adds in all the divisions they are setting up intermediate care facilities to cater to those high-risk individuals who are stable but need facility isolation to ensure better monitoring.
Doctor Fong also says they have in place measures to reduce the risk of people with severe COVID-19 dying at home, or coming to a medical facility in the late stages of severe illness.
The Permanent Secretary adds they will admit vulnerable positive persons to intermediate care facilities if they cannot be well observed in the home setting.
He says these measures however will require extra resources over and above what they have and as such they will continue to work with their community engagement and various community groups to provide support.
Permanent Secretary for Health, Doctor James Fong says there is an indication of escalating levels of infection in the community and they are also aware of an increase in evidence of positive cases in the community within Viti Levu.
He says the feedback from hospital admissions is that they have noticed an increase in COVID positive tests even though none of the cases so far are presenting because of COVID disease.
Dr. Fong says the widespread infections that occurred during the outbreak earlier this year and high levels of vaccination in Viti Levu are expected to be protective, however, it is expected that waning immunity levels will be more of an issue.
He adds vaccine booster doses for those 5 months beyond their second dose is essential.
Fijivillage calls on people to adhere to the COVID safe measures as we continue to get reports of people not following COVID protocols.
Health care staff in the North have escalated the measures in place aimed at protecting residents of Vanua Levu from the severe effects of COVID-19.
Permanent Secretary for Health Doctor James Fong says the widespread community transmission of COVID-19 in the North is evident.
He says this was expected when borders between Viti Levu and Vanua Levu were opened as the North was largely spared by the Delta outbreak that affected Viti Levu earlier this year.
Doctor Fong adds the main advantage in the North is that more than 80% of the adult population have been vaccinated plus a significant number of children above 15 years.
He further says therefore they expect that there is a high level of protection against severe disease and hospitalization in the Northern Division.
Doctor Fong adds among the unvaccinated, it is unlikely that there is a significant level of “natural immunity” or immunity acquired after infection and thus they remain more vulnerable to severe effects of COVID 19 infection.
He says they also know that immunity may wane faster in some vulnerable people, especially the elderly.
The Permanent Secretary says therefore, booster doses for those who were vaccinated earlier in the program and for vulnerable groups are essential.
He says health care workers in the North are now on-call to protect lives and mitigate community transmission.
Doctor Fong adds they are aided by other government officials from various government agencies in the North in tracing contacts, caring for patients who develop severe disease and monitoring individuals under isolation.
He says they need the public to cooperate with health care workers and adhere to the COVID safe measures to ensure that this surge in COVID-19 positive cases in the Northern Division is managed and contained.
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