Fiji records new border quarantine case of COVID-19

Fiji has recorded a new border quarantine case of COVID-19.

The 48 year old man travelled from Jakarta Indonesia on repatriation flight GA 9820, which originally departed from New Delhi India, with stops in Jakarta and Port Moresby, before arriving in Nadi on January 27th.

He tested positive during routine testing while undergoing mandatory 14-day quarantine in the government designated border quarantine facility in Nadi.

He was transferred to the isolation ward at the Lautoka Hospital in accordance with the standard protocol for COVID-19 cases.

The Health Ministry says the frontline border quarantine staff that may have had any contact with the case followed the standard infection prevention and control protocols. They will be monitored and tested as a precaution according to the protocols.

Meanwhile, a 25-year-old woman in border quarantine has returned a weak positive test result during routine exit testing. She had travelled from Dublin Ireland, arriving in Nadi on flight MH8790 from Kuala Lumpur on January 20th.

She had tested positive and was confirmed as a COVID-19 case in Ireland in October 2020. She tested negative in subsequent tests after recovery, including a pre-departure test before arriving in Fiji, and during day 3 border quarantine testing. She currently has no symptoms.

The Health Ministry says it is known that non-infectious fragments of the virus can remain detectable, and cause a positive test result long after the infection has passed, and even after previous negative test results; therefore it is unlikely that this person is currently infectious.

They say due to the test results, and history of testing positive in Ireland, this is considered a historical case, and is not counted as a new case for Fiji. However, as a precaution, she has been transferred to the isolation ward at Lautoka Hospital in accordance with the standard protocol for COVID-19 cases.

Fiji has now had 56 cases in total, with 1 active case, 53 recoveries and 2 deaths, since our first case was reported on March 19th 2020. The last 38 cases have been international travel associated cases detected in border quarantine. It has been 291 days since the last case was detected outside border quarantine on April 18th 2020.

A total of 26,510 laboratory tests have been conducted, with a daily average of 154 tests per day over the last 7 days, and a weekly average of 1179 tests over the last 2 weeks.