Permanent Secretary for Health Dr James Fong says the new target population of adults aged 18 and over for the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination campaign is 618,173.
This is following the mop-up vaccination program for the first dose, and the review of the target population.
Dr Fong says as of yesterday, a total of 589,301 adults in Fiji have received their first dose of the vaccine and 405,839 have received their second doses.
He says based on their updated total population of 618,173 people aged 18 and over , the revised vaccination coverage rates are 95.3% for one dose and 65.7% for the two-dose coverage.
Dr Fong adds in the review which is routinely undertaken in mass vaccination programs, the Ministry used the health zones generated profiling data for its target population to ensure that medical area targets are relevant to medical teams looking after the area.
He also says when calculating the national vaccination coverage as a percentage, the total adults vaccinated is divided by the total adult population and therefore, the increase in the total number for the adult population (the denominator of the calculation) at the national level has reduced the percentage of vaccination coverage nationally by 4%.
Dr Fong states that at the subnational level, while in some places there was an increase in the denominator especially in Rewa, Naitasiri, Nadroga, and Ba, other areas like Nasinu and the maritime islands have seen a decrease.
Dr Fong says the review of the vaccination denominator will remain ongoing as they reconcile profiling data with census-based estimates, however, no major impact is anticipated on the national adult population vaccination age-eligible coverage rates.
He says this revision of the total targeted adult population does not affect the figures for the total number of adults who have gotten vaccinated in Fiji, which is the numerator for the calculation of percentage vaccination coverage.
Dr Fong adds the change has just been to the denominator, which is the total population of adults in Fiji.
A total of 7,102 children were vaccinated over the last 2 days.
Dr Fong says the 15 to 17-year vaccination program has been ongoing with much of the teething issues mitigated.
He says the denominator for this phase of vaccination is 45,691 and it is subject to adjustments as target population verification is an ongoing exercise.
He also says a task force has been established to look at ensuring adequate and appropriate oversight over the implementation and maintenance of all measures needed to make the school environment as safe as possible.
Dr Fong adds as emphasized, the vaccination coverage rate in children will not determine the school starting dates.
He also says the children vaccination rate also does not impact the current social relaxation and/or economic recovery program.
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Fiji has 72 new cases of COVID-19 for the 24 hour period that ended at 8 am today.
Permanent Secretary for Health Dr James Fong says there were no COVID deaths to report for the last 24 hour period however they have 3 COVID-19 deaths to report for the period from 15th July 2021- 16th July 2021.
All three deaths were reported from the Central Division and their ages were between 59 to 66 years.
Dr Fong says all of the individuals died at home or on their way to the hospital and all three individuals were unvaccinated.
He adds there have been 3 deaths of COVID-19 positive patients. However, these deaths have been classified as non-COVID deaths by their doctors. The doctors have determined that these deaths were caused by a serious pre-existing medical condition and not COVID-19.
There have now been 579 deaths due to COVID-19 in Fiji, with 577 of these deaths during the outbreak that started in April this year.
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