The Health Ministry is now assessing whether the current increase in COVID-19 cases is being driven by a resurgence of the endemic Delta variant or the new and highly transmissible Omicron variant.
They are also working on the assumption that the Omicron variant is already here and is being transmitted within the community.
The Permanent Secretary for Health Doctor James Fong says they expect that genomic sequencing results of COVID-19 positive samples sent overseas will confirm this in due course.
He further says should this wave be driven by the Omicron variant, based on what they are seeing overseas, they should expect a large number of cases and they will also expect that infections will occur in vaccinated persons and those who have previously been infected with the Delta variant.
He adds it is important to remember that those who are vaccinated or had booster doses are far less likely to become sick enough to require hospitalization.
Doctor Fong says the main focus of the vaccination program is to prevent severe illness and death which will also help to limit the strain on our medical services.
He adds the three divisional hospitals are reporting an increase in positive cases admitted to the hospital, however, none of the cases so far are presenting with COVID-related medical problems.
Doctor Fong says they are being admitted for other medical conditions and are testing positive during mandatory testing for all admissions to the hospital.
He stresses that the overall goal of the Health Ministry COVID-19 pandemic response and recovery has always been to minimize severe illness and deaths.
Speaking in Labasa, Doctor Fong says he is confident that Omicron is around, he just needs the tests to confirm it.
He says this goal remains, along with reducing severe societal disruption as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the priority is the promotion of individual COVID safe measures which is vaccination, masking, physical distancing, avoiding crowds and hand hygiene followed by settings-based measures such as social gathering restrictions, indoor capacity restrictions, ventilation, and curfews.
Doctor Fong further adds they intend to avoid population blanket measures, like lockdowns, as much as possible as, almost two years into the pandemic, such measures are damaging to the community on many different levels and in our own recent experience, have limited value in controlling the spread of COVID-19 in Fiji.
He says with more than 91% of adults in Fiji vaccinated, plus added immunity expected due to the large number of people that were infected during the last wave on Viti Levu, we are no longer the COVID-naive population that we were before.
Doctor Fong adds the immunity that has been built through vaccination, and prior infection is expected to have a significant impact on reducing severe disease in this next wave.
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