COVID-19: Gatherings of 20 or more people banned in Fiji

Prime Minister, Voreqe Bainimarama has announced that gatherings of 20 or more people are now banned in Fiji after the confirmation of the first COVID-19 case.

Gatherings are defined as any assembly of individuals in a single location, including meetings, religious gatherings, such as church, mosque and temple services, and sports events.

At this stage, workplaces, businesses and inter-island shipping services outside of Lautoka may remain open, buses and Fiji Link services can continue and schools, outside of Lautoka, will remain open.

However Bainimarama says all Fijians should avoid all non-essential travel.

The Prime Minister says nightclubs, gyms, cinemas, swimming pools, fitness centres and even recreational contact sporting engagements, which, by their nature, make personal space nearly impossible should also be closed and ceased everywhere in Fiji, effective immediately.

For the time being, the judiciary will continue to function, but there will be no movement of people in remand centres into or out of the Greater Lautoka Area.

The government will also be establishing fever clinics in each Division, similar to what other countries have done to contain the virus at the local level.

Bainimarama says these clinics will be designed to keep people with fevers away from vulnerable people who visit Health Centres and into separate, dedicated spaces specially designed to effectively identify possible COVID-19 cases.

Bainimarama says this is an aggressive, proportionate and most importantly scalable response.

All of these measures will be reviewed in 14 days time.

The Prime Minister also confirms that before then, measures may escalate if necessary as they monitor the situation, particularly the outcomes of their contact tracing.