9th COVID-19 border quarantine case recorded in Fiji

The Acting Permanent Secretary for Health Dr James Fong has announced that Fiji has a new COVID-19 case which brings the total number of border quarantine cases in Fiji to nine.

Dr Fong says all are repatriated Fijian citizens that arrived on the same flight from India that landed in Nadi on July 1st.

He says the new border quarantine case of COVID-19 is a 50-year old woman.

Dr Fong says she is also the wife of one of the earlier announced border quarantine cases from this flight.

He says when her husband tested positive they were both moved from the government designated quarantine facility to the isolation facility at Lautoka Hospital. Dr Fong says she had tested negative on the first round of testing conducted for all passengers, but tested positive during the second round of testing.

He says as she is a close contact of a known case it is not unexpected that she has also tested positive.

Dr Fong says she remains at the isolation facility at Lautoka Hospital and is currently asymptomatic.

The Acting Permanent Secretary says the rest of the passengers from the flight tested negative for COVID-19 during the second round of testing in Fiji.

Dr Fong says this means they all registered three negative COVID-19 test results which includes one before departure from India, the second soon after arrival into Fiji, and the third by the end of the mandatory 14-day quarantine period.

He says all the passengers on the flight were kept under strict border quarantine conditions from the moment they arrived, including completing 14 days quarantine in government designated quarantine facilities, where they are supervised by the RFMF and screened daily for symptoms by staff from the Ministry of Health.

Dr Fong says they were cleared and released at the end of the 14-day quarantine period.

He says as an added precaution the frontline staff at the border quarantine facilities holding these passengers were also tested for COVID-19 and they all have tested negative.

Dr Fong re-emphasized that as long as our border quarantine and infection prevention control protocols are upheld there is no risk to the Fijian public from border quarantine cases.