Dr Fong disheartened after some try to undermine the COVID-19 care provided at the field hospital locations

Permanent Secretary for Health, Doctor James Fong says as an independent civil servant, he finds it very disheartening that some people, including media organisations, have sought to undermine the obvious and essential step at one of the field hospital locations to treat COVID-positive patients.

Doctor Fong says many people’s lives have been saved in those temporary facilities and they will continue to rely on their use until more Fijians are vaccinated and, as a direct result, the risks of severe disease and death due to COVID in Fiji are much lower.

He says there is a video circulating online from within one of the field hospital locations.

Doctor Fong stresses that facility was erected for the purposes of bolstering their treatment capacity, and its conditions are exactly the same as field hospitals they have relied upon in past emergency situations, such as cyclones and other disasters.

He says we are now in the midst of a wave of COVID-19 infections and, like most countries around the world, they have had to rapidly expand the health facilities by using these tents to care for COVID-19 patients and to ensure that all those who need beds and access to ventilators can have it.

Doctor Fong says even in developed countries, similar measures have been taken.

He says we have 317 new recoveries, with over 4,550 recoveries from the virus in total.

Doctor Fong says recovery is possible and in fact, most patients will recover.

He says the sooner those most at-risk are identified and treated, the more likely they will be able to recover as well.