Permanent Secretary for Health, Doctor James Fong has confirmed 11 new COVID-19 deaths from August 13th to 18th and 485 new COVID cases.
All the 11 deaths are reported from the Western Division.
The first COVID-19 death is a 68 year old man from Sigatoka. He presented to the Sigatoka Sub-Divisional Hospital in severe respiratory distress. He was transferred from Sigatoka Sub-Divisional Hospital to Lautoka Hospital. Sadly, he died seven days after admission on 17th August. He was not vaccinated.
The second death is a 68 year old man from Lautoka. He presented to the Lautoka Hospital in respiratory distress. His family reported that he had cough and shortness of breath three days prior to presentation. He died three days after admission on 18th August. He received the first dose of the vaccine in early-August. He did not receive the second dose of the vaccine.
The third death is a 73 year old man from Lautoka. He presented to the Lautoka Hospital in respiratory distress. He died two days after admission on 13th August. He received the first dose of the vaccine in late July. He did not receive the second dose of the vaccine.
Doctor Fong says the fourth COVID-19 death is an 84 year old man from Rakiraki who died at home on 17th August. He was not vaccinated.
The fifth death is a 72 year old woman from Sigatoka who died at home on 17th August. She was not vaccinated.
The sixth COVID-19 death is a 59 year old man from Sigatoka. He was declared dead on arrival by the attending medical officer at the Sigatoka Sub-Divisional Hospital on 18th August. He was not vaccinated.
The seventh COVID-19 death is a 64 year old man from Nadi. He was declared dead on arrival by the attending medical officer at the Nadi Hospital on 18th August. He was not vaccinated.
The eighth death is a 52 year old man from Nadi. He was transferred from an Isolation facility in Nadi on 15th August to the Lautoka Hospital. He was noted to be in severe respiratory distress. Sadly, he died three days after admission on 18th August at the Lautoka Hospital. He received the first dose of the vaccine in early July. He did not receive the second dose of the vaccine.
The ninth death is a 95 year old woman from Sigatoka who died at home on 17th August. She was not vaccinated.
The tenth death is a 57 year old woman from Nadi. She presented to the Nadi Hospital in severe respiratory distress. She died five days after admission on 17th August. She received the first dose of the vaccine in late July. She did not receive the second dose of the vaccine.
The eleventh COVID-19 death is an 86 year old man from Lautoka who died at home on 17th August. He was not vaccinated.
There have been 14 more deaths of COVID-19 positive patients. However, these deaths have been classified as non-COVID deaths by their doctors.
Doctors have determined that their deaths were caused by serious pre-existing medical conditions and not COVID-19.
With today’s newly reported deaths, there are now 432 deaths due to COVID-19 in Fiji, with 430 of these deaths during the outbreak that started in April this year.
As of August 16th, the national 7 day rolling average of COVID-19 deaths per day is 11.
The 7 day rolling average for COVID-19 deaths per day in the Central Division is 5 and in the Western Division is 6.
We also have recorded 247 COVID-19 positive patients who died from the serious medical conditions that they had before they contracted COVID-19; these are not classified as COVID-19 deaths.
A death announced yesterday from Kadavu is still under investigation.
[Kadavu Island]
Of the 485 new cases, 251 cases are from the Western Division, 188 cases are from the Central Division and 46 cases are from the Eastern Division.
The 46 new cases reported from the Eastern Division are all contacts of the index case from Rakiraki Village, Yale, Kadavu.
Doctor Fong says 45 of these new cases are from the same village, while one case is from Naioti Village. All of these cases have been isolated.
There have been 1,080 new recoveries reported since the last update, which means that there are now 20,591 active cases.
12,050 active cases are in the Central Division, 8,494 active cases in the Western Division, 1 active case in the Northern Division and 46 active cases in the Eastern Division.
There have been 43,026 cases during the outbreak that started in April 2021.
We have recorded a total of 43,096 cases in Fiji since the first case was reported in March 2020, with 21,825 recoveries
541,611 adults in Fiji have received their first dose of the COVID vaccine and 228,799 have received their second doses.
This means that 92.3% of the target population have received at least one dose and 39% are now fully vaccinated nationwide.
Permanent Secretary for Health, Doctor James Fong says they are continuing with their mop-up exercise of the first dose campaign, which will allow them to specifically target communities with low coverage, and subsequently also correct and update the total eligible population for the current vaccination program.
Meanwhile the 7-day average of new cases per day is 520 cases per day or 588 cases per million population per day.
Doctor Fong says they have noted a drop in cases reported per day recently however, the daily testing numbers have also been dropping around the same time, due to the change in testing policy in Suva-Nausori.
As announced on July 21st by the Permanent Secretary, only persons that have a higher risk of developing severe COVID-19 are being targeted for testing in Suva-Nausori.
Doctor Fong says this was done so that resources could be targeted to early detection, monitoring and care of persons with COVID-19 who are at higher risk of severe disease, to prevent more people succumbing to severe disease and death.
He says we are likely seeing the effect of this testing policy change now in Suva-Nausori with the drop in daily reported cases.
Doctor Fong says this does not mean that the outbreak is on a downward trend in the Suva-Nausori community.
As previously announced by the Permanent Secretary, daily case numbers in Suva-Nausori are currently not being used as an indicator to monitor the progress of the outbreak in Suva-Nausori.
The Ministry is closely monitoring other indicators such as test positivity, hospitalisations and deaths to track the progress of the outbreak in Suva-Nausori.
He says they are seeing increasing cases reported in the Western Division with evidence of widespread community transmission in the division.
310 COVID-19 patients admitted to the hospital - 31 patients in severe condition and 15 are in critical condition
There are currently 310 COVID-19 patients admitted to the hospital.
114 patients are admitted to the Lautoka Hospital, 38 patients are admitted at the FEMAT Field Hospital, and 158 admitted at CWM Hospital, St Giles, and Makoi.
31 patients are considered to be in severe condition and 15 are in critical condition.
Meanwhile 314,945 samples have been tested since this outbreak started in April 2021, with 357,806 tested since testing began in March 2020.
1,626 tests have been reported for August 19th.
The 7-day daily test average is 1,466 tests per day or 1.7 tests per 1,000 population.
The national 7-day average daily test positivity is 36.2%.
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