A 38-year-old crew member on board the cargo ship the MV Papuan Chief which arrived in Fiji on January 24th has returned with a weak COVID-19 positive test result.
The Health Ministry says the MV Papuan Chief made stops in Port Vila, Noumea, and Majuro with none of the crew members leaving the vessel in Fiji.
It says the crew member is well with no symptoms.
The Health Ministry says this person was reportedly tested positive and confirmed as a COVID-19 case in Ukraine in November last year.
He recovered in December and entered Seoul South Korea, completing a 14-day quarantine and the test returning negative, before the man joined the ship in Busan South Korea on January 2nd.
The Health Ministry says all other crew members have tested negative while the two Fijian crew members that had requested to disembark are currently undergoing a 14-day quarantine in a government-designated quarantine facility in Nadi and the rest of the crew will not disembark the ship in Fiji.
The Health Ministry says Fiji has had 55 cases of COVID-19, with 53 recoveries and 2 deaths, since the first case was reported on March 19th last year.
The Ministry says the last 37 cases have been international travel-associated cases detected at the border and it has been 284 days since the last case was detected outside border quarantine on April 18th.
A total of 25,433 laboratory tests have been conducted, with a weekly average of 1120 tests over the last 2 weeks.
