The greater Suva area is now on lockdown for 14 days.
The lockdown started at 5 o’clock this morning.
Police have closed off entry and exit at the drawn-up borders of the Suva confined area.
The closed-off borders are the Delainavesi Bridge checkpoint on the Queen’s Highway, the Sawani Junction checkpoint, and the Rewa Bridge checkpoint.
Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama announced the lockdown of Suva and new nationwide curfew hours after the confirmation that two people from Nabua are the latest patients to have tested positive for COVID-19.
Bainimarama says within the greater Suva confined area, the greater public will not be allowed in or out, only those travelling for medical purposes will be allowed through checkpoints.
All non-essential businesses will be closed.
Bainimarama says supermarkets and shops selling food will remain open so that people can buy food.
Restaurants can remain open, so long as they cut seating capacity below 20 people, practice safe physical distancing between tables and at queues, and must focus on takeaway and delivery orders.
Banks and pharmacies will remain open. Essential business will remain open. Just like Lautoka, that list includes air and rescue services, air traffic control services, civil aviation, telecommunication services, food and sanitary manufacturing plants, electricity services, emergency services, fire services, health and hospital services, lighthouse services, meteorological services, mine pumping, ventilation and winding, sanitary services, supply and distribution of fuel and gas, power, telecommunications, garbage collection, transport services, water and sewage services, FNPF and FRCS, civil service, private security services and roading services.
Bainimarama says if your business is not on the list, close it down.
The Prime Minister says for civil servants, they should continue to go to work unless the Permanent Secretary has informed you to work from home.
Markets will remain open but they are decentralising markets into satellite markets to prevent dangerous overcrowding that spurs the spread of the virus; and given some Fijians need to seek specialised treatment at facilities in Suva, the checkpoints will allow these individuals who need to undergo surgery or receive kidney dialysis treatment. In order to ensure residents in the greater Suva area can access life-sustaining services, the port of Suva will remain open for international freight shipping and inter-island cargo shipping; any passenger travel, however, remains forbidden.
The government will also implement the same Agriculture Marketing Authority arrangement they have introduced in the Lautoka confined area to get food and produce into the Suva confined area.
At all three checkpoints, suppliers can arrange with a police driver to ensure the produce still comes into Suva. The Prime Minister also says that food and essential goods will remain on the shelves of our shops and supermarkets.
He stresses to people not to run to the supermarkets and buy up goods as doing so will crowd these stores and put every shopper at-risk.
Contacts of the couple
The contact tracing teams are now identifying all of their close contacts and directing them into self-quarantine.
The Prime Minister says they identified a contact who lived at home with these two patients after returning from India as the likeliest transmitter of the virus.
The man has been placed into isolation in Labasa Hospital. The test result of the man is expected to be out soon.
Voreqe Bainimarama says the two new cases are the most serious developments to-date.
He says unlike the other case in the Suva area who was immediately self-quarantined and then isolated, there is a high risk these patients have infected others, as they not only lived in close contact with other families in their settlement but served in very public-facing job.
Both patients worked as hairdressers, one at the Jade Salon at FNPF Plaza and the other at the Super Cuts in Damodar City Suva.
Bainimarama says the Health Ministry has been informed both individuals stopped working from the 28th of March, but witness accounts have thrown those accounts into doubt.
He says the government needs to respond as if both individuals were working while showing symptoms and take assertive action to contain the virus.
New curfew hours
The Prime Minister has announced that the nationwide curfew will be from 8pm to 5am from tonight.
Voreqe Bainimarama says if you are travelling for work or as a result of a medical emergency, you can travel during these hours.
He stresses that otherwise, don’t add your name to the ever-growing list of violators.
Also from today, social gatherings will be banned entirely, everywhere in Fiji.
Bainimarama says the 20 person limit now applies only to the workplace.
He says two people, three people, it doesn’t matter, no more social gatherings.
The Prime Minister also says do not have visitors over to your homes.
Your interactions should be limited entirely to those already living in your households.
If you’re missing a friend or loved one, do the safe thing and call them on the phone.
If you need to walk around or exercise you may do so, but keep a safe distance of two metres from other people while outside.
He also says bus operators, drivers, and riders must take measures to ensure physical distancing is practiced on all of Fiji’s buses.
Changes to Lautoka lockdown
The Prime Minister has announced that restaurants in Lautoka can now operate, so long as they follow the safety guidelines, focusing on safe physical distancing and takeaway and delivery services.
Voreqe Bainimarama says the boundaries of the confined area will be open to those who are seeking emergency medical care or kidney dialysis.
Under close police escort, these individuals travel from the checkpoints directly to Lautoka Hospital.
Two confirmed cases
The sixth case is a 21-year-old hairdresser and the seventh case is her 33-year-old husband who is a barber.
Bainimarama says the two individuals are a couple living together in the Nabua Settlement in Suva.
The 21-year-old woman developed symptoms on Saturday, the 28th of March.
She informed the Ministry of Health on the 1st of April.
Bainimarama says the teams visited her home and tested her that same day.
Her partner, the 33-year-old husband reported symptoms on the 31st of March.
He was tested the same day as his wife.
The Prime Minister says it is important to note that the symptoms of these two newest cases started with just a runny nose when they called the Ministry of Health for testing.
Bainimarama stresses if you have any symptoms at all, even something as minor as a runny nose, immediately dial 158, which is the 24-hour toll-free coronavirus helpline.
He confirms that both patients have been transported securely and hygienically in an ambulance to the Navua Hospital Isolation Ward where both are in stable condition.
The couple shared a home with their daughter and she has been taken into isolation as well.
War On COVID-19
Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama says we cannot afford to lose the war against this virus.
Bainimarama says they know most Fijians are following and respecting the rules they have put in place but too many still aren’t.
He says if you have been sitting in Suva feeling as if this virus is not your problem, or that somehow your behaviour does not need to change, get a grip.
Bainimarama says this virus is here and it is serious.
He says anyone, anywhere could be a carrier.
Bainimarama says if people follow the government’s directives, they will lock this virus down and win this war. If people don’t, many people will die.
Health Ministry Leak
Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama says some of these two COVID-19 patients’ personal details were unfortunately leaked to the public.
Bainimarama says the Ministry of Health staff are devastated that someone is leaking confidential information.
He says these leaks have made the ministry’s jobs far more difficult and every time people on Facebook share this leaked information, they do so at the expense of the doctors, nurses and other medical staff trying their absolute best to inform the public in an accurate and timely manner.
Police are currently investigating this matter when they find whoever did the leak, they will be taken to task.
Source: World Health Organization
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