There are now three more cases of COVID-19 from Muanikoso in Nasinu which has also resulted in the area being locked down.
Permanent Secretary for Health, Doctor James Fong says the cases are all tied to the cluster in Muanikoso.
Doctor Fong says one case is from the same household as the other cases previously announced in Muanikoso.
The other two cases are neighbours from an adjoining home.
Doctor Fong says the close proximity of the two households strongly suggests there was contact at some point.
He says this may have been before the members of the first household began their home quarantine on May 11th.
The Permanent Secretary says given that these two new cases in the second household were not under a home quarantine order, they have locked down the Muanikoso area until further investigations can inform the risk assessment for the community.
Doctor Fong stresses that no one residing in the area will be allowed to leave.
Those outside of the area who reside in the community will be allowed to re-enter provided they acknowledge they will not be allowed to leave.
The contact tracing investigations into the Muanikoso cluster indicate that case 191, an Extra Supermarket employee, is the most likely source point for transmission.
Doctor Fong says she had careFIJI installed with the Bluetooth switched on, so their contact tracing teams have digitally logged interactions to inform their investigations.
He says this case again reinforces the importance for all Fijians to stay home at all times.
If you do have an essential reason to leave, wear a mask, maintain two metres of physical distance from others, and install careFIJI and keep Bluetooth turned on.
Permanent Secretary for Health Dr.James Fong says the contact tracing stemming from case 190 (the security company driver) has identified 29 contacts.
He says none of these contacts have been confirmed as COVID-positive.
Dr.Fong says as of this morning, 63.7% of the Fijian population have been screened for COVID-like symptoms as well as travel histories that may have exposed them to the virus.
He adds screening will be conducted multiple times to effectively screen for COVID-like symptoms, and they ask that the public continue to cooperate with their screening teams and report to one of their 58 screening clinics across the country if they are experiencing any flu-like symptoms, such as fever, dry cough, fatigue, loss of appetite, loss of smell, or body ache.
There are now 65 active cases in isolation. Fiji has recorded 197 cases and four deaths in Fiji since recording our first case on March 19th 2020.
The borders of the lockdown areas of Makoi in Nasinu, Naria in Rakiraki, and Dokonavatu, Nanukuloa and Naiserelagi in Savoi, Ra has been lifted.
Health Ministry’s Permanent Secretary Dr. James Fong says these areas have each gone for more than 14 days (the incubation period for COVID-19) without new cases.
Dr. Fong says an additional 4,000 swabs have been sent to Australia today while 7,000 backlogged swabs were flown out on Thursday for processing.
He says they expect that the test results will arrive early next week.
Dr. Fong adds once they have this data, they will consider relaxing the borders of containment areas where they have a high degree of confidence that community transmission has been eliminated.
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