BA.5 confirmed in Fiji

We have the BA.5 strain of Omicron in the community.

Permanent Secretary for Health, Doctor James Fong says although BA.5 has the ability to evade immune protection against infection induced by prior infection or vaccination, there remains significant protection against severe disease.

He says there is no evidence that BA.4 and BA.5 cause more severe disease than previous variants.

The Permanent Secretary says this is demonstrated in our persistently low hospitalization data for severe diseases despite the community-wide escalation currently seen.

Dr. Fong is urging everyone to stay up to date with their COVID-19 vaccination, in particular adults over the age of 50 and anyone with underlying medical conditions should get vaccinated and get their first and second booster doses when due.

He says the elderly and people with underlying medical conditions are at higher risk of severe COVID-19 disease so people in this group with COVID-19 symptoms must come forward to be tested, put onto a monitored care pathway by a medical provider, and immediately brought to the hospital if severe symptoms are present.

He says community and workplace leaders must bring back many of the COVID safe measures that community or organisation has learnt during the acute outbreak.

Dr. Fong further says all hospitals have been notified to reintroduce more stringent COVID safe measures which include restricting visitors and more strict enforcement of masking and hand sanitization practices while strengthening screening protocols.

Anyone who is sick should not be attending work or school. If you have COVID-19 symptoms, you must get tested for COVID-19. If you test positive, isolation is mandatory for 7 days.

Meanwhile, 169 new cases of COVID-19 have been recorded since last Thursday and there are now 519 active cases in Fiji.

81 new cases were recorded in the Central Division, 74 cases in the Western Division, 12 cases in the Northern Division and 2 cases were in the Eastern Division.

Test positivity stands at 4.3%.