There is confirmation that Fiji has 3 new deaths from COVID-19 including the 15-year-old girl whose death was under investigation.
Permanent Secretary for Health, Doctor James Fong says the 15-year-old from Colo-I-Suva was declared dead on arrival by the attending medical officer at the Raiwaqa Health Centre.
He says this means that she either died at home or on her way to the health facility.
Her family reported that she had been feeling unwell for 2 days. Her symptoms included cough, shortness of breath, and chest pain.
She was not vaccinated as she was not in the target population of people 18 years and over that are eligible to receive the vaccine.
A 56-year-old woman from Vatuwaqa who had COVID-19, died at home.
Her family reported that she had been feeling unwell for 1 week.
She received her 1st dose of the vaccine in early July.
She had not received the second dose of the vaccine and was not fully vaccinated.
An 87-year-old woman from Nasinu presented to the FEMAT Field Hospital in severe respiratory distress.
Her condition worsened at the Field Hospital and she died 2 days after admission.
Her family reported that she was feeling unwell with a cough and fever prior to her presentation.
She was not vaccinated.
There were five more deaths of COVID-19 positive patients.
However, these deaths have been classified as non-COVID deaths by doctors.
Doctors have determined that their deaths were caused by serious pre-existing medical conditions and not COVID-19.
There have now been 58 deaths due to COVID-19 in Fiji, with 56 of these deaths during the outbreak that started in April this year.
Fiji has also recorded 26 COVID-19 positive patients who died from the serious medical conditions that they had before they contracted COVID-19.
These are not classified as COVID-19 deaths.
Doctor Fong says there are 873 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 the link on our website, fijivillage.
There have been 132 new recoveries reported since the last update, which means that there are now 9,310 active cases.
There have been 11,315 cases during the outbreak that started in April 2021.
The country has recorded a total of 11,385 cases since the first case was reported in March 2020, with 1,991 recoveries.
353,355 adults in Fiji have received their first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine and 66,643 have received their second doses.
Permanent Secretary for Health, Doctor James Fong says this means that 60.2 percent of the target population have received at least one dose and 11.4 percent are now fully vaccinated.
Meanwhile, the 7-day average of new cases per day is 696 cases per day or 787 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 is asking all Fijians to get vaccinated as soon as possible.
Doctor Fong says they also urge our fellow citizens to continue taking all COVID-19 safety measures.
Remember to correctly wear your mask, wash or sanitize hands frequently, download and utilize the careFIJI application, visit a screening clinic if you and any of your family members experience the signs and symptoms of COVID-19, and maintain physical distancing measures.
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