Fiji continues to register new daily record number of COVID-19 cases as Permanent Secretary for Health, Doctor James Fong has announced 636 new cases of COVID-19 and 6 COVID-19 deaths for the 24 hour period that ended at 8am yesterday.
Doctor Fong says the first COVID-19 death is a 74 year old woman from Delainavesi, Lami.
She presented to the FEMAT Field Hospital in respiratory distress and died on the same day.
She was not vaccinated.
The second COVID-19 death is a 74 year old woman from Raiwaqa. She was admitted at CWM Hospital for treatment of a serious non-COVID-related medical condition and later tested positive in hospital. After investigation, her doctors have determined that her death was caused by COVID-19 and not the prior medical condition.
She was not vaccinated.
Doctor Fong says the third COVID-19 death is an 80 year old man from Suva.
He says one of their response teams was called to attend to him at home and he was then transferred to CWM Hospital after being assessed to have severe symptoms including shortness of breath.
The Permanent Secretary says unfortunately he developed severe respiratory distress and died two days later.
He had received the 1st dose of the vaccine in the first week of June.
However, he had not received the 2nd dose and was not fully vaccinated. The fourth COVID-19 death is a 43-year-old woman from Makoi. She was admitted at CWM Hospital for treatment of a serious non-COVID-related medical condition and later tested positive in hospital.
After investigation, her doctors have determined that her death was caused by COVID-19 and not her prior medical condition.
She had received the 1st dose of the vaccine at the end of April.
However, she had not had the 2nd dose and was not fully vaccinated.
Doctor Fong says the fifth COVID-19 death is a 70-year-old man from Nausori.
He presented to the FEMAT Field Hospital in severe respiratory distress and died on the same day.
He received his 1st dose of the vaccine in the first week of June.
However, he had not received the 2nd dose and was not fully vaccinated.
The sixth COVID-19 death is a 63-year-old man from Nailuva Road.
He presented to the FEMAT Field Hospital in severe respiratory distress and died on the same day.
He was not vaccinated.
He says there has been one more death of a COVID-19 positive patient.
However, this death has been classified as non-COVID death by doctors.
Doctors have determined that his death was caused by a serious pre-existing medical condition.
There have now been 39 deaths due to COVID-19 in Fiji, with 37 of these deaths during the outbreak that started in April this year.
Doctor Fong says they also have recorded 16 COVID-19 positive patients who died from the serious medical conditions that they had before they contracted COVID-19.
A full breakdown of areas of interest for active cases has been published online on the Ministry’s COVID-19 dashboard.
You check out the link on our website, fijivillage.
There have been 31 new recoveries reported since the last update, which means that there are now 5,776 active cases in isolation.
Doctor Fong says there have been 7,079 cases during the outbreak that started in April 2021.
Fiji has recorded 7,149 cases since the first case was reported in March 2020, with 1,318 recoveries.
176,849 samples have been tested since this outbreak started in April 2021, with 219,710 tested since testing began in early 2020.
The national 7-day average daily test positivity is 11.9% and continues on an upward trend.
Permanent Secretary for Health, Doctor James Fong says 324,462 adults in Fiji have received their first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine and 54,737 have received their second doses.
This means that 55% of the target population has received at least one dose and 9.3% are now fully vaccinated nationwide.
Meanwhile, Doctor Fong stresses that steam therapy is not a treatment for severe COVID-19.
He says severe COVID-19 is a medical emergency, and relying completely on home remedies can delay urgent medical treatment. Doctor Fong says the severe symptoms of COVID-19 include difficulty breathing, persistent pain or pressure in the chest, severe headache for a few days, new confusion, inability to wake or stay awake; and pale, gray, or blue-coloured skin, lips or nail beds.
If you or a loved one have any of these symptoms please go immediately to your nearest medical facility or call 165 if unable to get to a medical facility.
The 7-day average of new COVID-19 cases per day has increased to 429 cases per day or 485 cases per million population per day.
Doctor Fong says as expected with the increasing case numbers we are also seeing increasing numbers of people with severe disease and more deaths in the Suva-Nausori Containment Zone.
He says they continue to see people with severe COVID-19 dying at home or coming to a medical facility in the late stages of severe illness and dying within a day or two.
The Permanent Secretary stresses that severe COVID-19 is a medical emergency and a delay in receiving appropriate medical treatment may result in a higher risk of death.
He says steam inhalation therapy (kuvui) is commonly used as a home remedy to provide relief from congested nasal passages, and symptoms of cold or inflamed sinuses, or other mild COVID-19 symptoms, not for severe cases.
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