Fiji has 1 new COVID-19 cases, intense screening & testing expected

Fiji has 1 new COVID-19 case following the screening of another 16,613 Fijians and another 1018 tests yesterday.

The new case is the wife of case number 110, the first man in Ra who tested positive for the virus earlier this week.

Permanent Secretary for health, Doctor James Fong says they have another case in Ra, case number 116, which they announced yesterday.

Doctor Fong says this makes for a total of three cases in Ra, forming two clusters.

He says they still do not know where either of these clusters originated.

They are continuing to investigate any possible links with existing cases.

Doctor Fong says they have also sent samples of the positive test results of Fiji’s most recent cases to the reference lab in Melbourne to see if there is a genetic link between these latest cases.

He also says they are also investigating the possibility that these cases originated from the earlier-announced quarantine facility breach.

The Permanent Secretary says the incubation period for the virus is 14 days.

That means, from the moment a person comes into contact with someone with the virus and gets infected, it can take up to 14 days for the virus to cause symptoms or register a positive COVID-19 test result.

Only after the ministry effectively quarantines an individual for 14 days, and then they register a negative COVID-19 test result, do they know that they do not have COVID-19.

But that assurance comes from the fact that the ministry is certain that the individual had zero exposure to the virus for every single day of that two-week quarantine period.

Doctor Fong says if they came into contact with someone with the virus during that 14 day period, the incubation period resets to another 14 days.

He says at the Tanoa Hotel, due to the breaches at that border quarantine facility, there could have been infectious staff who transmitted the virus to individuals during their 14-day quarantine period. That means, when they tested them at the end of their quarantine, they could have missed a soon-to-be-positive patient.

In the case of those discharged from Tanoa from the 12th of April onwards, that’s exactly what they are concerned may have happened.

One of those individuals, case number 114 has already proved that concern is valid.

Doctor Fong says they have contacted 93 out of the 96 individuals discharged from the Tanoa Hotel Quarantine Facility from 12th April 2021 and onwards. These individuals are being tested and will restart their 14 day quarantine.

He says one of these cases may be the source of the outbreak in Ra.

Doctor Fong says they simply won’t know for sure until these restarted periods of quarantine are complete.

In the meantime, they have no choice but to treat the first two cases in Ra as instances of community transmission, which are cases that have no known link to other cases or international travel.