Permanent Secretary for Health, Doctor James Fong says the ministry’s progress in contact tracing, screening and testing puts them on track for the Suva and Nausori lockdown measures to expire at 4am tomorrow however he says they will let the public know by midnight if the lockdown will be extended.
He says things will change if they are unable to find all or most of the missing five percent of contacts of the garment factory worker, or the testing reveals new and high-risk cases.
Doctor Fong says they will be loud and clear with the public if that happens but they are confident, at this stage, that they can identify the remaining contacts in Suva and Nausori and lift the lockdown on schedule.
He says they will let people know by midnight tonight if something changes.
Stay with Legend FM and fijivillage if there are any announcements tonight.
Doctor Fong says assuming they stay the course, the Suva-Nausori Lockdown Zone will revert into two separate containment areas, the Suva Containment Area and the Nausori Containment Area, from 4am tomorrow.
The borders of the areas are unchanged which means the border checkpoint at Wainibuku Bridge near Rups Nakasi will be back.
The Permanent Secretary says the lifting of that lockdown measure will mean that, within these containment areas, movement, for essential purposes only, may resume.
The system of cross-border deliveries of food and essential items into the containment areas will also resume, and supermarkets, banks, pharmacies and other essential businesses, as identified by the ministry, may operate from tomorrow.
However Doctor Fong says this is not cause for celebration.
He says it is certainly not an excuse to disregard any of the measures that will remain in place.
Doctor Fong says at its close, the curfew will have lasted 56 hours, meanwhile, the incubation period for the virus is 336 hours or two full weeks.
That means there is still a very serious risk that new cases may develop, so we must act accordingly.
Do not go outside of your home to meet with friends and family. Do not have parties.
He stresses that reckless celebrations of the end of the lockdown will give them no choice but to recommend another one so please make smart choices, and spare the nation from that drastic course of action.
Curfew hours will be from 11pm until 4 am, everyone should stay home unless they have an essential reason to leave, you should not mix with anyone who doesn’t share your home with you, no sports of any kind should be played, places of worship will remain closed, save for small funeral ceremonies, no non-work gatherings of any size should take place, anywhere you go outside of your home, you should have on a mask or face covering, wash your hands well and often, use sanitiser when you see it, businesses that are not on the list of essential services should not open, you should not share takis, bilos or cigarettes, any person-to-person interaction - even a maskless conversation -- can put you at-risk, and please download careFIJI, and keep your bluetooth switched on when you are in public spaces.
Doctor Fong also stresses that if they see serious threats to public wellbeing, such mass crowding, or people outside, in large numbers, without masks being properly worn, they will recommend that a hard lockdown come back into effect.
Permanent Secretary for Health, Doctor James Fong says 95 percent of the 877 contacts of the garment factory worker have been contacted, screened, and swabbed, including all of her closest contacts who shared her bus and worked in close proximity to her at the factory in Kalabu.
He says they will all remain under home quarantine for at least 14 days from their last contact with the case.
611 have tested negative for COVID-19 so far with more samples being tested.
Doctor Fong says with everyone safely at home during the Suva Nausori lockdown, the Health Ministry contact tracing teams worked through the torrential rain this weekend to identify the contacts of case 113, the garment factory worker.
He also says after another 1,212 tests and 7560 community screenings, they have no new cases of COVID-19 to report in Fiji.
Doctor Fong says he knows many may have cheered, or felt excited, when he said but no confirmed cases, at this stage, is no reason for celebration.
He says it does not mean there are no cases out there; it means none have been detected over the past 24 hours.
The Permanent Secretary says they are certain there are more cases that will develop or worryingly that an unconfirmed case of the virus has already developed into a highly-contagious disease.
He says their biggest fear right now is that someone, with symptoms, has not reported to a screening clinic or called 158.
Doctor Fong also says this virus arrives in waves.
He says a lull can often signal a surge so let’s not let one day of no new cases fool anyone into thinking this storm is over.
The two COVID-19 clusters in Ra are still unlinked to other existing cases while a call has also been made to those that played in the Malomalo 7s in Sigatoka on April 16th and 17th to call 158 as one of the Makoi cases had played in that tournament.
Permanent Secretary for Health, Doctor James Fong says Suva and Nausori are not the only source points of their contact tracing efforts.
He says for Ra, they are pursuing two main leads - one is that the cases are related directly to the quarantine facility breach in Nadi or two, that these cases may be rippling out from an individual in Ra who attended the funeral in Tavakubu.
If you are this person, or you know this person, please contact the Health Ministry on 158.
Doctor Fong says they are also awaiting the results from Melbourne to confirm a genetic link to other local cases in Fiji.
He hopes that guides their investigation to a link with another chain of transmission.
But he says we need widespread adoption of the COVID-safe health habits, not only for a weekend, a week, or even a month - these measures must be kept by everyone, everywhere for the foreseeable future.
Doctor Fong also says one of the source points stems from case number 91, the patient who resides in Makoi.
Her brother-in-law, who was case number 98, played rugby in a team that competed in the Malomalo 7s at Lawaqa Park in Sigatoka on April 16th and 17th.
Working with the coaches at the tournament, the ministry has contacted most of those he may have had contact with however, there are still some missing pieces.
Doctor Fong says they are asking any of the rugby players who played in the Malomalo 7s, who are yet to be contacted by the ministry, to please call 158.
He also cautions everyone not to be too quick to ask why we have more stringent measures in Fiji than in other countries.
The Permanent Secretary says the simple reason is that all countries are at different stages in fighting this pandemic, and each country has to adopt measures based on its own situation.
He says in the United States, for example, more than 100 million adults have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. That is 40% of the adult population.
Doctor Fong says we are not at that point in our immunizations here in Fiji, and we won’t be for some time.
He says with any variant of the virus, that is a recipe for deadly disaster, and it can happen here if we become complacent, or worse, cynical, about these very important prevention measures.
The Health Ministry's Permanent Secretary, Dr James Fong says conditions of isolation facilities may not be ideal in the early phase of containment as the disease is not predictable.
He has made this comment after confirming that they have received some complaints from people at isolation facilities.
Dr Fong says there were two incidents and one involved a baby who rolled off the bed at the isolation facility in Navua.
He says this happened when officials were trying to get a baby cot.
He says the baby was not adversely impacted because of what had happened.
Dr Fong also confirms the baby was brought to Suva but it was because of the symptoms of COVID-19 and not because of the fall.
Dr Fong says there was a complaint regarding the conditions at the isolation facility in Rakiraki.
He says this is being managed.
Dr Fong says they need to get more containment facilities upgraded quickly for use to ensure it is in a more ideal setup prior to a person going in.
He says this is a lesson they have learnt from Rakiraki.
The Permanent Secretary for Health Doctor James Fong says they will continue to create more capacity to get more isolation facilities in the community.
He says they still have room capacity at the Lautoka Hospital and they have created reserve capacity in the Ba Hospital for the purpose of taking extra isolation cases.
Doctor Fong adds they have space at the Navua Hospital but do not want to add more patients so they have opened the isolation facility in Colo-i-Suva.
The Permanent Secretary says he also knows that they have opened up Adi Cakobau School to be an isolation facility.
He stresses that all their isolation facilities are manned by the appropriate staff.
Doctor Fong says they discussed this morning and will discuss again tomorrow morning further plans about creating their surge capacity.
He adds they plan to stay 50 beds ahead of the last patient.
The Permanent Secretary for Health Dr James Fong says they will have to look into the non-essential businesses that were open and finalise an action plan looking forward.
Doctor Fong highlighted this when questioned by fijivillage on what is being done to deal with this issue as clear directives were given that only essential businesses like supermarkets should be open across the country apart from the Suva-Nausori containment zones.
We have also received reports that some of the non-essential businesses that were open were in Navua and Ba were hardware shops, clothes and footwear shops.
Dr Fong says he was just notified this morning of this issue and they will be looking into this together with the police and military.
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