Permanent Secretary for Heath Doctor James Fong says if you do test positive or develop COVID-like symptoms, their advice is that you self-isolate at home for seven days.
He says positive people should begin their seven day isolation period from the day they tested positive or from the day their symptoms began.
Doctor Fong says contacts of cases do not need to self-isolate, but they should monitor themselves for symptoms and self isolate if symptoms present.
The Permanent Secretary says if you need to leave home for an essential purpose, please wear a mask, complete any essential business you have and go straight back home.
He says they cannot force you to keep yourself at home as much as possible.
Dr Fong says they cannot keep you from meeting friends, cannot count your seven days for you but instead, they are counting on you to be responsible enough to follow the rules and slow the spread of the virus.
He adds that the total number of COVID cases that they are recording is an underestimate of the current problem and this is due to their priority testing regime. Doctor Fong says they are not downplaying the problem but the problem is that they will not be able to test every single body who has a flu like illness as they do not have the test to do it, nor do they have a capability to follow up all those positives.
He says this is not only in Fiji but is present throughout the whole world.
Doctor Fong says although majority of the vaccinated people will have mild symptoms from Omicron, there are people who are still vulnerable to severe disease even if they are fully vaccinated.
He says we need to ensure these vulnerable adults receive their booster doses and until we achieve wider booster coverage, the focus now must be to suppress transmission through basic measures like masking and physical distancing in order to protect these vulnerable Fijians, which include persons over 50 years and those with underlying health conditions, like diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease and asthma, and those who are obese or are pregnant.
He says even without Omicron they were expecting the third wave from the way they saw the behaviour happening in the community.
Dr Fong says this tells us that we need to adapt our approach to confronting this virus. He says this tells us that we cannot apply an old containment response to take on new variants.
Dr Fong says while Omicron may be mild for nearly everyone it infects, it has a faster rate of transmission and this means it may not be mild for the health system because even if the percentage of people who require hospitalization due to COVID-19 may be lower, those who are unvaccinated and those with underlying health conditions who are not boosted may still suffer severe disease and burden our health system.
Dr Fong says while Omicron may be mild for nearly everyone it infects, it has a faster rate of transmission and this means it may not be mild for the health system because even if the percentage of people who require hospitalization due to COVID-19 may be lower, those who are unvaccinated and those with underlying health conditions who are not boosted may still suffer severe disease and burden our health system.
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