Fiji has confirmed one new case of COVID-19.
The Permanent Secretary for Health Dr James Fong says this new case is a household member of the Lakena cases reported earlier, and he was already in isolation at Navua Hospital when he registered a positive result.
He says given his first test upon entering quarantine was negative, they do not view him as a high-risk case for wider transmission.
Dr. Fong further says since yesterday, they have been investigating the potential for further exposure of COVID-19 in the Fiji Centre for Disease Control.
Dr. Fong adds their medical and laboratory staff have not registered positive test results at this time, however, they are in the process of deep cleaning and decontaminating the centre in line with advice received from the reference laboratory in Melbourne.
He says as a result there will be no testing onsite for at least another 24 hours.
Dr Fong adds the Fiji CDC is where they process the vast majority of COVID-19 tests and says with the facility temporarily offline yesterday, the volume of their testing has decreased.
He says testing has continued at Tamavua Twomey Hospital, CWM Hospital, Labasa Hospital and Lautoka Hospital.
Dr Fong says they are focused on bringing it back online as soon and as safely as possible.
He also says regardless of the temporary lull they expect in swab processing, it remains vital that they use the next four days which is the Suva-Nausori lockdown period to identify and swab the contacts of existing cases in Suva and Nausori.
Dr. Fong says until they have a clearer idea of the extent of transmission in the Suva-Nausori area, the lockdown serves the dual purpose of putting a firm halt on further spread.
He says there may be community cases they do not know about.
Dr.Fong says if you are living in Suva or Nausori and you find yourself feeling unwell at any point through the next four days please call 158.
He assures people a team will visit you, or you may be referred to a screening clinic.
The Suva-Nausori lockdown period will start at 11pm tonight and will end at 4am on Wednesday the 19th of May.
Permanent Secretary for Health, Doctor James Fong says it will require a longer course of lockdown if we are to eliminate COVID-19 from Viti Levu however they are using the initial 4 days lockdown to understand the data on what is happening in Viti Levu.
While responding to a question during the virtual press conference, Doctor Fong says they may lengthen the current four days lockdown to get all the data but they will also focus on a prolonged targeted lockdown based on the data and also weigh up the socio-economic ills.
Doctor Fong says they hope to get the Fiji Centre for Disease Control tests underway again, collate the data, and then move forward with a targeted approach.
Doctor Fong also clarified whenever they do a short lockdown, the main idea is to stop whatever case is out there from moving and to swab them.
He says they then identify the positive cases and isolate them.
Permanent Secretary for Health, Doctor James Fong says they have identified red zones based on behaviour which are termed high-risk areas for COVID-19.
When asked by fijivillage on whether there are options being looked at to contain Makoi as a number of cases have emanated from that area and people still freely moving in and out, using public transport, and a few people even caught drinking alcohol, Doctor Fong says Police are looking at the data and stronger measures will be taken.
Permanent Secretary for Health Dr James Fong believes they will be able to catch up with all the backlog once the Fiji Centre for Disease Control is back up today.
He highlighted this when questioned if the closure of the CDC will affect our testing capacity and may lead to an explosion of cases.
Dr Fong says it just so happens that their testing capabilities has dropped when we have a lockdown.
Dr Fong adds another benefit of the lockdown is that a person will not move much even if there is a positive case.
Fiji will be receiving more GeneXpert machines next week that are expected to boost our testing capacity and help our fight to contain the spread of COVID-19.
The Head of Health Protection, Dr Aalisha Sahukhan says these machines are expected to be sent to divisional hospitals.
She says they do have a temporary setback at the Fiji Centre for Disease Control but going forward they know that their capacity to do testing will be spread across Fiji.
Dr.Sahukhan says they do have enough consumables to do COVID-19 tests and once the Fiji CDC comes back online, they will be back at full capacity.
She says at the CDC they have 15 lab staff who are dedicated to lab testing.
The Health Ministry’s Chief Medical Advisor Doctor Jemesa Tudravu has confirmed that there are no new cases at the Lautoka Hospital after screening the 317 staff as well as the 207 patients.
He says the 207 patients include 51 mothers and 46 babies.
Dr Tudravu adds the Fiji Emergency Medical Assistance Team Field Hospital is in full operation and they are considering to increase the capacity of the hospital based on the demand.
He has also revealed that 413,678 people have been screened through the mobile screening clinics so far and 12,050 people have been swabbed.
Dr Tudravu says they currently have 78 people in their three community isolation facilities.
He says these facilities have positive cases and therefore out of bounds for the general public.
Five more patients have recovered from COVID-19 in Fiji.
Head of Health Protection Dr Aalisha Sahukhan says there are now 48 active cases where six are border quarantine cases, 29 are locally transmitted cases while 13 are still under investigation.
We have had 166 cases since our first case last year with 114 recoveries and 4 deaths.
Dr Sahukhan says we are now heading into a situation where most of you will be asked to sacrifice and stay home.
She adds thousands of health staff and members of the disciplined forces will not be at home but out there working to combat the virus which is why people need to stay home and only leave if there is a medical emergency.
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