2 new COVID-19 cases have been confirmed for Fiji – 1 is from Ra while another is a case that stayed at the Makoi family’s home.
This brings the total number of known COVID cases in Fiji to 111 since our first case was detected on March 19th 2020. 44 of these cases are currently active and isolated.
Permanent Secretary for Health, Doctor James Fong says after 685 laboratory tests and 20,201 in-person health screenings on Tuesday, they have the 2 new cases. Doctor Fong says 1 patient, the 110th in Fiji, is of some concern, and it will require additional investigation into his contacts to determine if he is definitively linked to other active cases.
He is a 53-year-old caretaker of the Ra Provincial Office, and he showed symptoms of COVID which included body aches.
The man visited the Nanukuloa Health Centre on 24th April.
Doctor Fong says the man has been moved securely to the isolation ward at Lautoka Hospital.
He thanked this man as he felt symptoms and reported them.
Doctor Fong says he is now getting the care he needs and he no longer poses a threat to anyone.
All of his family members have been quarantined at the Ra Special School with Police officers providing security at the facility.
The Fiji Police Force has also established Naiserelagi Village, Nanukuloa Village and Dokonavatu Settlement as containment zones in Ra.
50 primary and secondary contacts of the man in Ra were identified and screened for fever and symptoms.
All households in Nanukuloa Village, Naiserelagi Village and Dokonavatu Settlement have been informed to stay home until further notice.
Doctor Fong also says there are others out there who may have had contact with this man.
He says they need all Fijians living in the Rakiraki area to visit a screening clinic if they have COVID like symptoms. You can dial 158 for the Ministry of Health to come to your home to check on you. The second case is a 25 year old man who had stayed at the house of the woman from Makoi.
Doctor Fong says they established that he was a close contact through the contact tracing, and they tested him despite the fact that he had no symptoms.
He says this man stayed in Makoi from 12th to 19th of April and he went to Vunimono, Nausori where he was retrieved and swabbed.
The Permanent Secretary says they have 4 teams facilitating contact tracing based on his travel history.
He says the man has been securely transferred to an isolation unit in Colo-i-Suva.
His primary contacts are also quarantined in Colo-i-Suva.
Doctor Fong says effective contact tracing allowed them to catch this man’s infection early and stop further spread of the Makoi cluster.
Permanent Secretary for Health, Doctor James Fong says we remain in a period of nationwide containment but the two latest clusters of cases indicate to us that this virus has spread to localities in several different areas of Viti Levu.
Doctor Fong says these two weeks will define the next two months for Fiji, and we all need to behave like we have COVID, even if there are no known cases in our community or we are showing no symptoms of the virus.
Doctor Fong says he has to assume that we have exposure of COVID-19 all over Viti Levu and this is one of the reasons why they have decided to set up screening clinics all over Viti Levu.
He says we have to wear masks, stay at home, and turn on our careFIJI app as we will be saving lives.
Doctor Fong says with every new case, this crisis takes on a new, more personal meaning for more Fijians.
He says this is not only for family members, but for neighbours, and for entire communities.
Doctor Fong says you should not mix with anyone who does not share your home with you, no sports of any kind should be played, save for small funeral ceremonies, and no non-work gatherings of any size should take place.
He says businesses that are not on the list of essential services should close.
Doctor Fong says every Fijian should live by a personal mandate to wash their hands, wear their masks, download careFIJI and make sure it is turned on and keep their physical distance from others.
The Permanent Secretary for Health Dr James Fong has stressed that they will only give passes to move in and out of a containment zone for emergency cases such as medical reasons or funerals.
A number of people lined up at the Ministry of Health Headquarters today to get passes to move in and out of a containment zone.
Dr Fong has made it clear that they have given enough time for people to move to their homes.
The Permanent Secretary says everyone has had ample time to return to where they reside and they do not expect public vehicles such as taxis and buses to cross containment area borders.
Dr Fong says a list of dialysis patients is also at the border with the police, however, they strongly encourage these patients to enter and stay within the lockdown for the next 14 days.
He adds the exchange of food and medicine supply can be facilitated at the border provided delivery arrangements are organized by the requesting party.
Permanent Secretary for Health Doctor James Fong says he wants people to understand that if they keep moving around and do not stay at home, they keep shifting the goal post for him.
He says if we keep shifting the goal post, the two weeks lockdown will extend to three weeks and can even extend to three months.
Permanent Secretary for Health, Doctor James Fong says this is not a time for finger-pointing or blaming.
He says there’s a great deal of frustration among the public, and on social media, aimed at the quarantine guards that were at the epicenter of this latest COVID-19 outbreak.
Doctor Fong says the fact that quarantine guards, who were on the front lines of containing COVID for a full year, suffered a lapse that allowed the virus to escape into Viti Levu is evidence of how unforgiving this virus is of even the smallest lack of care or act of forgetfulness.
He says if it can happen to them, it can happen to you.
Doctor Fong is asking people to please be vigilant and to be relentless in following the procedures the experts have laid out for staying safe.
He also says he was sent some photos yesterday from Serua Province of community leaders implementing lockdown measures to protect the families in the area.
Doctor Fong says no one mandated them to act.
He says they have done so for the simple reason that they care about protecting their communities.
Doctor Fong says the Prime Minister also wants to be sure this message reaches every Fijian who needs to hear it, so he has asked that Doctor Fong’s entire statement be translated into the vernacular languages.
He encourages leaders looking to inspire urgency within their communities to share the messages, and then do one better by seeing the health measures enacted at the community level.
Permanent Secretary for Health, Doctor James Fong says the fastest way people who cannot earn a living because of the lockdown can start to earn a living again is to contain the virus and ensure that it does not spread anymore.
Dr.Fong says the best and most sustainable way of mitigating the problems that they have is for people to comply with the orders and keep still so that the lockdown period is as short as possible.
He says they have allowed shops in the zones to open and have also allowed supplies to be dropped at the border as long as somebody picks it up from the other side.
The Permanent Secretary says they want freight, fuel and food to move, but not human beings who should stay in their own containment areas.
He says he realises the difficulty that many people will face and this is not something that they are doing easily adding that he has already acknowledged in his mind that unless they sort out food supply, freight supply and essential supplies, there is a danger that he may not be able to sustain the containment.
Fong highlighted this while responding to a question on what the government is doing to provide alternative avenues of livelihood as Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of i-Taukei Affairs also announced that Fijians cannot fish in their own fishing areas and the villages are to set up their lockdown areas.
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