We would like to avoid population blanket measures such as lockdowns – Dr Fong

The Permanent Secretary for Health Doctor James Fong says they would like to avoid population blanket measures such as lockdowns as they have also negatively impacted our communities on other fronts.

Dr Fong says in their own recent experience, such measures have limited scope in the control of the spread of COVID-19 in Fiji.

He says the overall goal of the Ministry’s COVID-19 pandemic response and recovery is to suppress ongoing community transmission to a level that will minimize hospitalization, severe illness, and deaths as well as minimize severe societal disruption.

Dr Fong says they are prioritizing the promotion of individual COVID safe measures such as vaccination, masking, physical distancing, avoiding crowds and hand hygiene followed by settings-based measures which include social gathering restrictions, indoor capacity restrictions, ventilation and curfew.

He says the immunity that has been built through vaccination and prior infection is evidently having a significant impact in reducing severe disease in this third wave.

The Permanent Secretary says they will continue to work towards suppressing community transmission because they know that even if the proportion of severe cases relative to all cases is less in this third wave, a smaller percentage of severe disease in a larger number of cases will still result in a large number of sick individuals admitted to hospital, which could still overwhelm the health system's capacity to manage.

He says for now they have a window of opportunity to prevent such an occurrence and this will entail adherence to COVID safe measures and having in place measures that ensure that all those vulnerable to severe disease are adequately monitored, tested, retrieved, and effectively managed in a timely manner before their conditions worsen.

Dr Fong adds the two COVID related deaths reported yesterday highlight the need for such vigilance in persons with significant underlying medical conditions, especially if they are elderly.

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