9 new COVID-19 cases have been announced by the Permanent Secretary for Health, Doctor James Fong, and more COVID guidelines have been announced to ensure that the Health Ministry focuses on tracing, testing and isolating people.
Doctor Fong says one of the cases announced yesterday worked at Extra Supermarket in Flagstaff Suva. Three of today’s cases are his co-workers.
He says Extra Supermarket has been closed for decontamination purposes while they await test results from the remaining Extra staff and management.
Doctor Fong says Extra Supermarket operates with a well-enforced policy of mask-wearing and mandated that all staff and customers have the careFIJI app installed with Bluetooth turned on, or that contact tracing details were registered.
He says that is allowing them to identify hundreds of contacts very quickly.
Doctor Fong says without the use of the careFIJI app, tracing individual casual contacts in a place like a crowded supermarket is extremely difficult, especially with the contact tracing teams already working overtime every day to keep up with the cases they have.
The careFIJI app will allow contact tracers to see which people have come in close proximity to each other at a specific location.
If you have the app on and functioning, the Health Ministry says the contact tracers can let you know if you have come into contact with an infected person, and he thinks everyone would want to know that.
The Permanent Secretary says while contracting the virus from a casual encounter in which both parties are masked seems rare, they are dealing with a COVID variant that WHO has designated as potentially more contagious, and certainly less predictable.
Doctor Fong says in addition to their traditional contact tracing, those who have been identified as close contacts by the careFIJI app and the written contact tracing registry, including shoppers, are being contacted by the Ministry.
He says while they reach these people, they are asking everyone who has been to Extra Supermarket in Flagstaff or Hanson’s Supermarket in Makoi in the last two weeks to self isolate.
Doctor Fong says they will announce in due course once everyone on the list has been contacted.
He says those found to not have had contact with these new cases will be allowed to end their period of self-isolation.
The Permanent Secretary says he wants to remind anyone who runs out to a grocery store for supplies: Make sure your mask is on, your careFIJI app is installed, and your Bluetooth is switched on while you shop.
He notes that some supermarkets have online shopping and home delivery services as well.
He urges the public to use them, and also urges more supermarkets and businesses to make online shopping and delivery available.
Another two individuals presented to the Nausori Health Centre with COVID symptoms.
Doctor Fong says they are family members from Lakena in Nausori. Two of their household contacts have also tested positive for COVID-19.
He says at this early stage of the investigation, these cases are not linked to other clusters.
One of these individuals worked at Nausori market as a vendor. That space is being decontaminated.
Another case is an individual from Vunimono in Nausori who also tested positive after presenting to the health centre. This case is also not linked to other cases.
He says so far, none of these six cases in Nausori are currently linked to existing cases.
While they are still early into the investigation, they will be treating these cases as instances of community transmission until they are proven to be otherwise.
The final confirmed case is a border quarantine staff who tested positive for COVID-19 in the course of routine testing. This person’s last negative test result was from 1st May 2021.
Doctor Fong says their investigations have not pinpointed a source of transmission for this case. Until they know more, they are not allowing any discharges from the quarantine facility in question.
He says this series of new clusters requires large-scale contact tracing to the magnitude of several hundred primary and secondary contacts.
Doctor Fong says the cluster emanating from Extra Supermarket is of particular concern.
However, he says this cluster is unlike past clusters, such as the garment factory case, for one simple reason: careFIJI. He says the app’s use has given them a huge advantage in identifying the closest contacts stemming from the Extra Supermarket cases.
He says they are already locating them and testing them in droves.
Doctor Fong says they expect many more of these individuals to register positive test results.
A 24-hour curfew will come into effect for Suva and Nausori from Friday, 14th May 2021 at 11pm until Tuesday, 18th May 2021 at 4am.
Permanent Secretary for Health, Doctor James Fong says as is now standard practice, the Suva and Nausori containment areas from Tamavua-i-Wai Bridge to Logani will merge into one, single lockdown zone. Doctor Fong says with everyone safely at home, the Health Ministry teams will use that time to trace, identify, and test as many contacts as possible.
If their investigations reveal large numbers of contacts in other areas, such as Lami, the lockdown order will extend to those areas.
He says you have two full days to manage your shopping and purchase food and other essential items for your home.
If you are going out to do shopping, you must have careFIJI installed with the Bluetooth turned.
Doctor Fong says if you go to the supermarket and see a crowd, do not add to the problem. Call 158 and report the violation of COVID protocols.
He says businesses must take responsibility as well by ensuring mask-wearing, proper physical distancing, and mandating the use of careFIJI by all staff and shoppers.
For those who genuinely need an emergency food supply in the later part of the curfew, Doctor Fong says they are going to set-up another dedicated hotline for you to call so that food rations can be delivered to you. They will have details to announce on that number tomorrow.
New measures will also be coming into effect for the rest of Viti Levu while they conduct assessments on the need for a more sustained lockdown period.
From Saturday 15th May 2021, the curfew hours for the rest of Viti Levu will expand from 6pm until 4am every day.
Outside of Viti Levu, the curfew hours will remain from 11pm until 4am. Doctor Fong says this also means that if the lockdown of Suva and Nausori expires on schedule, the curfew hours from 6pm until 4am will apply in these areas as well.
He says the contact tracing and testing through the weekend will reveal the way forward for their containment strategy.
Doctor Fong says whatever course they take, they will provide you with ample notice ahead of time.
He knows we saw some panic-buying yesterday.
The Permanent Secretary says when he sees images of those crowds, he sees lives being put at-risk.
Doctor Fong says he sees the potential for ICUs being filled with dying patients and he admits, he reacted quite strongly to it.
He says he feared those runs on the supermarkets would lead to widespread transmission of the virus.
Doctor Fong hopes to be wrong about that.
He says these are uncertain times, this is a scary disease, and he understands why some of the people have made rash decisions.
The Permanent Secretary says he understands this situation can make us anxious and he understands the need to have your family well-provided for.
But he says there are real ways we can protect ourselves that align with the best available science and data.
Doctor Fong says we can wear masks, we can keep a proper distance of two metres between ourselves and others, we can wash our hands, we can install careFIJI and keep the Bluetooth turned on.
He also stresses that rumours, gossip, and unverified information will lead us down a much, much darker path.
The Permanent Secretary says we must stay the present course by staying calm and staying home as much as possible.
Permanent Secretary for Health, Doctor James Fong wishes a sincere Eid Mubarak to all those marking this joyous occasion safely at home.
He says Eid, the festive occasion that marks the end of the Holy month of Ramadan is tomorrow.
Doctor Fong says for most every year, this is a three-day celebration spent with family and friends; a time for those who celebrate to spend gathered at the same table, and to pray together at the mosque.
He says this year must be different.
Doctor Fong says we cannot gather, not in mosques and not at the homes of our friends and family.
He says we must stay home and only interact with the members of our own households.
The Permanent Secretary for Health Dr James Fong says once the upcoming lockdown is finished, he knows there will be lots of discussions happening within all the other agencies for them to look at ways of ensuring that they can balance the economic issues with the need to stop the virus from moving.
Dr.Fong says there are intense discussions on how they can manage workers to be at work without increasing their risk of getting infected.
Dr Fong further says every time you open a business , you increase movement and ideally what they want to do is open businesses and narrowly track how exactly people move.
He says unfortunately tracking the movement of people requires some degree of oversight and that means everybody who is providing the information has to tell the same story.
Dr.Fong adds they are looking at something called quarantine corridors that allows people to move.
The Permanent Secretary for Health Doctor James Fong says the security forces are working on solidifying the enforcement of COVID-19 measures and it will be evident in the coming days.
While responding to a question on what the Ministry will be doing to the people who continue to disregard the safety measures in place, Dr Fong says it is not so much what the Ministry will do now, it is about what the security forces will be doing from now.
He says he has been in a few meetings where they are now working to solidify the enforcement of the COVID-19 measures and it will become more evident in the forthcoming days.
Meanwhile, 631 cases have been recorded from the 19th of April to date for not following the health restrictions in place as well as breaching curfew orders, and Acting Police Commissioner, Rusiate Tudravu is seriously concerned about people still not adhering to the orders stipulated under the Public Health Act.
The Ministry of Economy will be looking after the rationing of food to people who are in need during the 24-hour curfew period that will come into effect for Suva and Nausori from 11pm this Friday to 4am Tuesday.
The Permanent Secretary for Health Doctor James Fong says one of the things they learned during the 56 hours of curfew is that they need someone else to handle the rationing program.
He says they have discussed this with the Ministry for Economy and they have their plans on this.
Health Ministry's Permanent Secretary Dr James Fong says as challenges are evolving day by day and with a lot of changes occurring, the priority is to sort their responses for cases of COVID-19 and the process of communicating this to the people is currently coming second.
However, he says they agree that they have to improve on their communication side of things.
When questioned whether he will consider public relations initiative earlier in the day to curb the panic driven events, Dr. Fong says they have to first respond to cases.
He was also asked whether doing press conferences late in the night is practical as people may miss out on critical information.
Dr. Fong says he has to struggle a bit in the day where he has to respond to new cases of COVID-19 and also work on mobilising resources for the responses.
He says they will have to relook at the whole strategy moving forward.
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