Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama confirms that the lockdown in the Greater Lautoka Area will be lifted at 5am tomorrow however a new confined area has to be determined for a part of Lautoka after a man smuggled his way into the area, hid his travel history from officials and now has symptoms of COVID-19.
Bainimarama says this was discovered when the man visited a fever clinic in Lautoka yesterday.
After discovering that he had symptoms, more information emerged that the man arrived in Fiji on the 24th of March from Uruguay, transiting through Singapore.
Bainimarama says after further questioning, they discovered that the man had in fact smuggled his way into the confined area during the lockdown period.
The Prime Minister says it appears the man remained within a set area in Lautoka.
Now that he’s showing symptoms, the health contact tracing teams are determining how many Fijians he may have put at-risk.
This man’s test result will come out tomorrow morning.
The new confined area within Lautoka will be based on the man’s movements.
These details will be announced tomorrow.
Bainimarama also says it is the bad news that usually makes headlines but let’s not forget that most people in the Lautoka confined area actually have been doing the right thing.
He also says they are grateful to Fijians inside and outside the checkpoints who have been riding out, and he knows that it has been a difficult 18 days.
Bainimarama says their patience and diligence has helped the government effectively trace and isolate cases, so by staying inside and playing by the rules, they have saved lives.
He also confirms that yesterday, the fever testing team screened the temperatures of nearly 10,000 Fijians in the Lautoka confined area.
He says several of the people were running a fever, which in itself isn’t necessarily a cause for alarm.
