Doctor Fong says there is continuing high level of community transmission in the Central and Western Divisions

Fiji's 7-day average of new COVID cases per day is 730 cases per day or 825 cases per million population per day.

Permanent Secretary for Health, Doctor James Fong says they have noted a drop in cases reported per day recently however, the daily testing numbers have also been dropping around the same time, due to the change in testing policy in Suva-Nausori.

As announced on July 21st by the Permanent Secretary, only persons that have a higher risk of developing severe COVID-19 are being targeted for testing in Suva-Nausori.

He says this was done so that resources could be targeted to early detection, monitoring and care of persons with COVID-19 who are at higher risk of severe disease, to prevent more people succumbing to severe disease and death.

Doctor Fong says we are likely seeing the effect of this testing policy change now in Suva-Nausori with the drop in daily reported cases.

He says this does not mean that the outbreak is on a downward trend in the Suva-Nausori community.

As previously announced by Doctor Fong, the daily case numbers in Suva-Nausori are currently not being used as an indicator to monitor progress of the outbreak in Suva-Nausori.

The Ministry is closely monitoring other indicators such as test positivity, hospitalisations and deaths to track the progress of the outbreak in Suva-Nausori.

He says test positivity in Suva-Nausori was between 40-50% before the change in testing policy and has remained at this high level, which is above the national average.

Doctor Fong says this is one indicator of the continuing high level of community transmission in this area.

Testing levels in the Western Division remain consistently high with 3.8 to 4 tests per 1000 population per day at a 7 day average.

He says we are seeing increasing cases reported in the Western Division with evidence of widespread community transmission in that division.

There are currently 300 COVID-19 patients admitted to hospital.

62 patients are admitted to the Lautoka Hospital, 67 patients are admitted at the FEMAT Field Hospital, and 171 admitted at CWM Hospital, St Giles, and Makoi.

41 patients are considered to be in severe condition, and 9 are in critical condition.

Meanwhile 513, 535 adults in Fiji have received their first dose of the COVID vaccine and 180,722 have received their second doses.

This means that 87.5% of the target population have received at least one dose and 30.8% are now fully vaccinated nationwide.