Fiji now has 36 active COVID-19 cases in isolation, 14 of which are border quarantine cases, with 22 locally transmitted cases.
While making the announcement, Permanent Secretary for Health, Doctor James Fong says they are now able to confirm that contrary to what they feared on Sunday, Fiji does not have a new cluster or community transmission.
Doctor Fong says they have recorded 12 new cases of COVID-19 since their last update on Sunday. The first case is a soldier working in a border quarantine facility in Nadi, and he is the roommate of case 73, the first border quarantine soldier announced to have been infected by the virus on Sunday, April 18th.
Doctor Fong says this new case had tested negative on his first test and does not pose a transmission risk to the public as he has been contained within the government quarantine facility since Sunday, April 18th, and tested positive now after 7 days in quarantine.
4 of the new cases are close contacts of the hotel quarantine staff who traveled to the funeral in Tavakubu.
The 4 tested negative when they entered quarantine but have now tested positive.
Doctor Fong says this indicates that they were not infectious while in the community.
The next 7 new cases are related, and are all close household contacts of the 29-year-old female from Makoi who they revealed on Sunday was potentially the first case of community transmission.
He says by community transmission they mean a case that cannot be linked to other cases or to international travel.
Doctor Fong says finding a case of community transmission is of great concern, because it indicates that an outbreak is widespread and uncontrolled, with a devastating outbreak imminent.
However, he says further investigation has revealed that the infected Makoi woman’s husband is a 30-year-old soldier who works in a border quarantine facility in Nadi, and he has tested positive.
Doctor Fong says as per protocol this soldier was tested for the virus on April 10th before being released to return home to Suva on April 12th, and he had tested negative.
He says they can confirm that, between the negative test result on April 10th and returning home on April 12th, he had close contact with case 73, the border quarantine soldier who had also tested negative on 10th April and likely got infected shortly after swabbing.
Doctor Fong says, unfortunately, this soldier, who is the husband of the Makoi case, came into contact with case 73, before case 73 was found to be positive.
He says the current information indicates that the woman from Makoi caught the virus from her husband. Establishing this link between the Makoi case all the way back to case 73 means that this Makoi case will now be re-classified as a case of local transmission, and not community transmission.
Permanent Secretary for Health, Doctor James Fong says they are currently tracking the movements of the Makoi family who have tested positive of COVID-19, and initial investigations indicate that they had a large number of contacts in the community and moved around extensively.
Doctor Fong confirms that their likely window of transmission for the family, starting with the Makoi woman’s husband extends from Monday April 12th to Sunday April 25th.
He says they have cordoned off a certain area where the Makoi family who have tested positive for COVID-19 resides and it is a very busy area.
Doctor Fong says the zone is marked by two bridges and 31,000 people are living in this zone.
He says these people are earmarked for more intense screening.
The Permanent Secretary says they will be swabbing everyone close to the family home and the 31,000 people.
He says even though they now know that they do not have community transmission, they will still need to maintain the containment areas.
Doctor Fong says the maintenance of the current containment areas will help them trace all their contacts more effectively and quickly.
He says in the meantime all health protocols as announced on Sunday will remain.
Doctor Fong is also making an urgent plea to all those who attended the Nasereci church service in Nadi at 10.30am Sunday 18th April and anyone who travelled from Viti Levu to any of the outer islands including Vanua Levu from Monday 19th April - to contact the nearest health team or the 158 helpline.
He urges all Fijians to stay the course and follow the measures that are necessary to contain this outbreak and get us back to normal.
Please remain at home and try to take care of all necessary business such as shopping for groceries and other necessities in your immediate neighbourhoods.
Wear your masks if you must go out, avoid social gatherings and maintain social distance of at least two metres when you are outside your home.
Wash your hands frequently with soap and water for about 20 seconds each time or use hand sanitizer. Please also ensure you have the careFIJI app on.
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