Two doctors who work at the Lautoka hospital are the latest cases of COVID-19 in Fiji which means we have 51 active cases.
Another 1,736 COVID-19 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours.
Permanent Secretary for Health, Doctor James Fong says a 25-year-old female doctor, presented at a screening clinic with COVID-like symptoms.
She then tested positive for the virus.
The second, a 30-year-old male doctor, was tested as part of contact tracing for the first doctor.
Doctor Fong says both doctors have been entered into isolation and their close household contacts have been quarantined.
He says they are early into their investigation, but at this stage the two cases do not appear to have any links to existing cases or events of interest, such as the Tavakubu funeral.
Doctor Fong says while they did work at the Lautoka Hospital, they did not work in the isolation ward where they would have had interaction with COVID-positive patients.
He says we must treat these cases as instances of community transmission until it is proven otherwise.
The Permanent Secretary says all contacts within Lautoka Hospital will be screened, tested, and isolated as appropriate.
He says this is a massive and complex undertaking for the hospital team, and they are providing the support they need.
This includes sending in medical teams from other medical facilities to replace staff who have been identified as close contacts of these cases and stood down to be isolated.
Doctor Fong says they have one advantage as both doctors installed the careFIJI app and had it running.
He says while the contact tracing teams are conducting their work on the ground, a digital net is being cast far and wide for Fijians who may have had contact with these two doctors.
The Permanent Secretary says careFIJI has identified one contact already, and Lautoka is safer for it.
He says while these two doctors responsibly had the app running, they know the effectiveness of the app’s contact tracing function depends on how many other people also had it running on their phones.
Doctor Fong says if you do not yet have the app installed, do it right now, and make sure it is running everytime you leave the house. It will not use data, it will not chew battery but it will save lives.
Permanent Secretary for Health, Doctor James Fong says in consultation with the Ministry of Education, they are considering re-opening the schools on 24th May 2021 but that judgement depends entirely on Fiji’s COVID situation at that time.
Doctor Fong says he wants parents and students to know that getting our children back in classrooms is an urgent priority for the Ministry.
He says until such time, parents must keep their children at home.
The Permanent Secretary stresses to parents not to bring their children for shopping and not to send them out with friends. He stresses that the children should stay at home.
Doctor Fong also says as they shift into the next phase of containment, they are prioritising non-school isolation facilities so that, once it’s safe, they are ready to resume classes.
He says there is a proven benefit to in-person learning, and every day we delay our student’s return to classes risks long-term harm to our human capital.
Doctor Fong says we contained last year’s outbreak of COVID-19 in 30 days.
It has been 15 days since the confirmation of the case that sparked the outbreak we face today, and he is worried that too many of us think this containment effort will play out on a relatively similar timeline.
He says he very much doubts that it will.
The Permanent Secretary says it could end soon and he hopes it does but the data is telling us a different story.
Doctor Fong says we are not up against an identical enemy this time around, the chains of transmission are more widespread and the variant is more transmissible.
He says the risks are greater, and our response must be more decisive.
He further reveals that his teams are ready for a containment strategy that lasts months, at a minimum.
Every Fijian must be ready as well and good habits such as mask-wearing, covering coughs and sneezes, staying home when sick, proper handwashing, physical distancing, keeping careFIJI on, and limiting movement are not temporary or emergency measures.
He says they will be with us for the foreseeable future as the war against the virus is far from won.
Doctor Fong says they have to test many, many more Fijians in order to get a grip on the spread and stop it.
He says the case numbers may seem low next to the hundreds of thousands being recorded around the world every day but they won’t stay low if we do not act responsibly.
791 of the 877 contacts of the garment factory worker in Kalabu have tested negative in their first test however that could change at any point throughout the 14-day incubation window for the virus.
Permanent Secretary for Health, Doctor James Fong says they have narrowed down the number of work contacts of case 113 from 877 to 771.
They have tested all of these contacts plus some secondary contacts with all 791 testing negative.
Doctor Fong says they continue to investigate whether there are other contacts that need to be screened and tested. These contacts are all under a home quarantine order that will last two weeks from their last contact with case 113.
He says because they have acted quickly to contain these staff, if any do develop the virus, it will be securely detected while they are in quarantine.
Doctor Fong also says there is one reason, above all, as to how they successfully located all of these Fijians. It was because the more than 300,000 people living in Suva and Nausori did their jobs last weekend by staying home.
He also says he had spoken to the Police, and they made only a handful of arrests. Otherwise the streets were clear.
There are currently six large containment areas throughout the country - Suva, Nausori, Lami, Rakiraki, Nadi and Lautoka, and the Health Ministry is not considering rolling back the measures for any of these zones until they have a clearer idea of the risk posed to the public.
Permanent Secretary for Health, Doctor James Fong says the borders of each containment area are highly restricted and movement within the areas should be limited.
He says the virus may be laying in wait within any of these containment areas, time is the only strategy that will expose those cases.
Doctor Fong also reveals that their contact tracing is progressing well elsewhere, with one exception.
They have one team from the Malomalo 7s held on April 16th to 17th at Lawaqa Park Sigatoka that they have not fully accounted for.
He is calling on members of the Lion Heart 7s team that shared a hostel and played with case number 98 to please call 158 right now. It is vital they locate all of their players and any other persons who closely interacted or travelled with the team.
Doctor Fong says after a full 14-days of quarantine since their exposure, the three from Moturiki have all returned four consecutive negative test results for COVID-19.
The lockdown of the island has been lifted however, as is the case with all the rural and maritime communities, they encourage families on Moturiki to stay where they are, stay at home, and limit their movement as much as possible. Doctor Fong also says now that the markets are open, we need shop owners and customers to avoid turning them into dangerous hotspots for further transmission.
Please ensure that physical distancing is practised, everyone is wearing a mask, and that everyone has the careFIJI app installed and turned on.
Fiji has 51 active cases of COVID-19 in isolation.
16 of the cases are border quarantine cases and 31 are locally transmitted cases.
The Health Ministry’s Head of Health Protection Doctor Aalisha Sahukhan says four cases are under investigation to determine the source of transmission.
She says in total Fiji has had 121 cases of COVID-19, 68 recoveries and two deaths since the first case was recorded on March 19th 2020.
Doctor Sahukhan adds that 54,988 COVID-19 tests have been conducted since they started testing early last year.
She says the daily average is at 978 tests per day over the last 7 days and the weekly average is now at 5,995 tests per week over the last two weeks.
Doctor Sahukhan revealed that a record 1,736 tests were conducted yesterday alone.
She says testing numbers from the labs at CWM and Lautoka Hospitals have not been received so the number will actually be higher.
The couple who returned to Fiji from India on 10th April and had tested positive for COVID-19 are still in isolation.
This has been confirmed by Health Ministry's Head of Health Protection Doctor Aalisha Sahukhan who says that so far the only people that have been released are the three recovered cases but the couple is still not discharged.
The soldier who was case 73 had contracted the virus from this couple.
Doctor Sahukhan says they will not be revealing any other information about the recovered patients as the last thing they want is for the communities to wait for them and victimise them even further.
She stressed that we are fighting the virus and not the people.
The Health Ministry’s Chief Medical Advisor Doctor Jemesa Tudravu says their mass targetted screening is continuing in the restricted zones and the cumulative total that have been covered in this clinic is 218,400 people.
He says the coverage range of the communities is from 70 to 100%.
Doctor Tudravu says they acknowledge the support of the communities who have come forth and helped their teams.
He adds they have people coming with food, water, raincoats and umbrellas.
Doctor Tudravu adds there are 55 active stationary screening clinics throughout the country.
He says in the last 24 hours, they screened 410 individuals and swabbed 100 individuals.
Doctor Tudravu revealed 27,800 have gone through their stationary clinic.
He says the last few cases were diagnosed in these clinics.
Doctor Tudravu also says that mobile widespread community screening continues.
He says in the last 24 hours, they covered 2,240 individuals and swabbed 334 individuals.
The screening program continues.
Permanent Secretary for Health Dr James Fong says the food assistance provided in the Suva-Nausori lockdown zone over the weekend was run by the Ministry of Economy and was government-funded.
Dr Fong says they only assisted in the program.
He says the exact details of the deliveries that were made as well as plans for any future distribution will be provided by the Ministry of Economy tomorrow.
Dr Fong also says the ministry did not have enough time to prepare for a lockdown and they will need to have a discussion with other ministries to be better prepared if the need for another lockdown arises.
The Permanent Secretary says if they had enough time, they would have recruited a broader group of people including the NGOs to work with them.
He adds they have learnt some lessons after this.
Dr Fong has one again stressed that they ran this program for those in the lockdown area because people could not access supermarkets or shops and adds the assistance is no longer in place.
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