FULL STORY: 67.8% of Fiji's target population fully vaccinated against COVID-19

Fiji has 93 new cases of COVID-19 to report for the 24 hour period that ended at 8am yesterday.

There are now 12,999 active cases.

Fiji has recorded a total of 50,540 cases in Fiji since the first case was reported in March 2020.

The Health Ministry says Fiji has one new COVID-19 death to report today. This COVID-19 death was reported from the Central Division.

The first COVID-19 death to report is a 73-year-old woman from Suva who died at home on 22nd September. She was not vaccinated.

There have been 8 more deaths of COVID-19 positive patients. However, these deaths have been classified as non-COVID deaths by their doctors.

The doctors have determined that these deaths were caused by a serious pre-existing medical condition and not COVID-19.

There have now been 584 deaths due to COVID-19 in Fiji, with 582 of these deaths during the outbreak that started in April this year.

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Vaccination of children aged 15 to 17 years with the Moderna vaccine will cease this weekend to allow the Health Ministry to take stock of the progress of the campaign.

14,680 children in Fiji have received one dose of the vaccine.

Permanent Secretary for Health Doctor James Fong says they will advise on the resumption date of the vaccination campaign.

He says parental or guardian consent remains mandatory before vaccination and no vaccine will be administered to any child without the consent of the parent or guardian.

Doctor Fong adds vaccination for children aged 12 to 17 years is safe.

He also says similar to adults, children can also experience the side effects of COVID-19 vaccination such as pain, swelling at the jab site, fever and body aches.

Doctor Fong adds these symptoms should subside over a few days.

He further says severe side effects are rare and the risk of getting a severe infection and succumbing to COVID-19 is still higher than the risk of adverse events from vaccination.

The Permanent Secretary says parents and guardians are encouraged to agree for their children to be vaccinated to protect them from COVID-19.

For the Rewa subdivision, the drive-through vaccination site at Hexagon plaza will cease from today.

The vaccination site at the Vunimono Hall will relocate to the Parish Hall behind Nausori Market from Monday 27 September 2021 from 9am to 3pm.

As of the 23rd September 2021, 590,386 adults in Fiji have received their first dose of the vaccine and 419,065 have received their second doses.

Based on our updated total population of 618,173 people aged 18 years and over, the revised vaccination coverage rates are 95.5% for adults who have received at least one dose and 67.8% are now fully vaccinated nationwide.

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Vaccination for children will start on Monday on Kadavu Island.

Permanent Secretary for Health Doctor James Fong says vaccination is conducted by 5 teams from the Vunisea health team and 2 teams from the Kaval health team.

He confirms that six new cases were recorded on Kadavu Island in the last 24 hours bringing the total number of cases on the island to 556.

Doctor Fong adds of these, a total of 535 cases have recovered and the remaining 18 active cases are under daily monitoring by the health team.

He says five patients are currently admitted at Vunisea hospital, of which 3 are COVID positive and currently in stable condition and 2 are negative for COVID-19.

The Permanent Secretary adds movement restrictions remain in force supervised by the Police team and the Vanua.

There were also forty-two new cases recorded on Beqa Island in the last 24 hours bringing the total number of cases to 242.

Doctor Fong says of these 238 are active cases who are under home isolation and daily monitoring from the health team.

He confirms that vaccination for the villagers will commence once the 14 days lockdown for the island is completed.

Movement restriction remains in force for the whole island.

READ FULL COVID-19 UPDATES.