A new daily record of COVID-19 cases has been set as 860 new cases of COVID-19 and 3 COVID deaths have been announced for the 24-hour period that ended at 8am yesterday.
Permanent Secretary for Health, Doctor James Fong says the first COVID-19 death is a 56-year-old man from Davuilevu.
He was admitted to the CWM Hospital with COVID-19 symptoms like cough, fever and generalized body pains that he had for two weeks.
His condition worsened in hospital and he died 3 days after admission.
He was not vaccinated.
The second COVID-19 death is a 68-year-old man from Suva.
He was referred to the CWM Hospital from the Samabula screening clinic.
He was noted to be in severe respiratory distress.
His condition worsened in the hospital and he died one day after admission.
He was not vaccinated.
Doctor Fong says the third COVID-19 death is a 69-year-old woman from Nabua.
She was referred to the CWM Hospital from the Samabula Health Centre.
She presented in severe respiratory distress.
Her condition worsened in the hospital and she died on the same day.
She was not vaccinated.
He says one more death, a 15-year-old, is currently being investigated by the clinical team to determine the cause of death.
There have now been 51 deaths due to COVID-19 in Fiji, with 49 of these deaths during the outbreak that started in April this year.
As of the 9th July, the 7-day average daily deaths in Fiji is 3 deaths per day.
Out of the 49 COVID-19 deaths in this outbreak, 41 which is 84 percent of the individuals, were unvaccinated and 8 or 16 percent of the individuals received only one dose of the vaccine.
None of the individuals that have died from COVID-19 in Fiji have been fully vaccinated.
Fiji has also recorded 19 COVID-19 positive patients who died from the serious medical conditions that they had before they contracted COVID-19.
None of these individuals, who died from non-COVID related medical conditions, were fully vaccinated.
A full breakdown of areas of interest will be published on the Ministry’s COVID-19 dashboard.
You can also check out the link on our website, fijivillage.
You will also be able to view the approximate locations of the new cases on the dashboard.
There have been 62 new recoveries reported since the last update, which means that there are now 7,932 active cases.
There have been 9,451 cases during the outbreak that started in April 2021.
Fiji has recorded a total of 9,521 cases since the first case was reported in March 2020, with 1,518 recoveries.
188,148 samples have been tested since this outbreak started in April 2021, with 231,009 tested since testing began in early 2020.
The national 7-day average daily test positivity is 15.5 percent and continues on an upward trend.
340,334 adults in Fiji have received their first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine and 62,445 have received their second doses.
Permanent Secretary for Health Doctor James Fong says this means that 58 percent of the target population have received at least one dose and 10.6 percent are now fully vaccinated nationwide.
He says the two drive-through vaccination centres within the Suva-Nausori Corridor (Albert Park and the Fiji National University- Nasinu Campus at Valelevu) will be open today from 9am to 2pm for vaccination.
The 7-day average of new cases per day has increased to 610 cases per day or 689 cases per million population per day.
Doctor Fong says with daily increases in cases we are also seeing increasing cases of severe COVID-19 and increasing deaths.
He says with increasing daily cases, hospitalisations, and deaths, they are asking all Fijians to get vaccinated as soon as possible.
Doctor Fong says getting fully vaccinated, with 2 doses of the vaccine, will decrease your risk of getting infected with the virus but most importantly, getting fully vaccinated will significantly reduce your risk of getting severe COVID-19, even if you do get infected.
He says none of the people who have died from COVID-19 in Fiji have been fully vaccinated and we know from data from the United Kingdom that the Oxford-Astrazeneca vaccine reduces the risk of hospitalization from the Delta variant by 92 percent.
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