A new daily record of COVID-19 cases has been reached as 116 new cases have been announced while there is an unfortunate death from COVID-19.
A 73-year-old patient at the CWM Hospital has died.
The patient had been admitted to the hospital for almost a month for a severe non-COVID related illness and tested positive 11 days ago.
Permanent Secretary for Health, Doctor James Fong says whilst his prognosis was poor, this death has been classified as a COVID-19 death by the doctors treating him.
This is the 3rd death due to COVID-19 during this current outbreak and the 5th COVID-19 death overall for Fiji.
Doctor James Fong also says 93 of the new cases are linked to the existing clusters.
7 cases are linked to the Caubati cluster, 24 to the Nasinu Police Barracks cluster, 3 to the Navy cluster, 14 to the CWM Hospital cluster, 3 to the Waila cluster, 5 to the Sakoca cluster, 2 from the Nawajikuma, Nawaka cluster, 8 from the Tramline, Nawaka, Nadi cluster, 1 from Muanikoso, 10 from the Reservoir Rd cluster, 1 from Navosai cluster, 1 from the Nakasi cluster, 2 from the Tacirua cluster, 2 from the Grantham Rd cluster and 10 cases from the Vunimono cluster.
3 cases have been identified as primary contacts of earlier cases, and the respective response teams are determining the cluster link.
Doctor Fong says 13 cases are under investigation to determine whether they have links to other cases.
2 cases are from Mead Road, 1 from Nasese, 1 from Princes Rd, 1 from Vatuwaqa, 1 from Veisari, Lami, 1 from Tovata in Makoi, 1 from Wailoku, 2 from Koronivia, 1 from Vanuadina Village, Nausori, 1 from Naduru, Nausori and 1 from Nausori Town.
He says investigations are also ongoing into 3 cases that were swabbed at the Valelevu and Raiwaqa screening clinics.
Doctor Fong says there are also 4 cases in the Korovou area in Tailevu.
Early investigations have revealed that 1 is a driver that was recruited into the Korovou COVID-19 response team.
The other 3 cases are primary contacts of this driver - a relative and other members of the response team.
Investigations are ongoing into how these cases contracted the virus, and the subdivisional medical team are working to contain this new cluster.
32 COVID-19 cases have recovered, which means there are now 943 active cases in isolation.
There have been 1252 cases during this outbreak that started in April 2021.
Fiji has recorded a total of 1322 cases in Fiji since the first case was reported in March 2020.
There have been 367 recoveries and 5 deaths due to COVID-19.
7 COVID-19 positive patients have died from pre-existing non-COVID-19 related illnesses.
114,386 samples have been tested since this outbreak started in April 2021, with 157,247 tested since testing began in early 2020.
In the last 24 hours, a total of 4,355 first doses and 730 second doses of the COVID-19 vaccine were administered nationally.
This brings the total number of vaccinations conducted to date to 242,721 first doses and 6,224 second doses into the arms of Fijians.
41% of the target population of people aged 18 and over have received the first dose of the vaccine.
42% have received the first dose in the Central Division, 56% in the Western Division, 12% in the Eastern Division, and 12% in the Northern Division.
Permanent Secretary for Health, Doctor James Fong says the COVID-19 outbreak, based on the number of daily cases, is escalating in the Lami - Nausori containment area, with a majority of the cases in the lockdown areas or clusters.
Doctor Fong says the 7 day rolling average of daily cases is now at 68 cases per day.
He says the 116 new cases announced was not unexpected, and daily case numbers are expected to increase further.
Doctor Fong says the detection of a new cluster in the Korovou area, outside the containment zones, is a cause for concern.
He says while they continue to respond to new cases and monitor the outbreak closely, their mitigation measures to cater for severe illness are presently able to cater for the current caseload.
Doctor Fong says with the rising case numbers, the risk of an increase in severe cases is high but there are contingency measures in place to respond accordingly.
Please stay at home as much as possible.
If you have to leave your home: wear a mask, keep at least 2 metres between yourselves and others outside your household, frequently wash your hands with soap and water, or an alcohol-based hand sanitiser.
Download the careFIJI app and Bluetooth on.
Behave as if anyone you encounter outside your home may have the virus.
Don’t attend social gatherings.
Don’t drink grog with anyone outside your household.
Don’t invite anyone home.
Please get vaccinated as it will reduce your risk of contracting the virus and help protect you from severe disease and death if you do get infected with COVID-19.
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