Permanent Secretary for Health, Doctor James Fong says education is important and they need to protect that space and make sure that the space around it is protected so that it becomes a low risk space.
While responding to questions by fijivillage on the safety of the large number of unvaccinated children below the age of 12 years who will be returning to school soon, Dr. Fong says these questions should also be answered by the Education Ministry.
However he says they have allowed the re-opening of schools by escalating the authorities’ ability to dish out punitive measures for those that disobey the mandates.
Dr. Fong says they are trying to create a safe zone so that schools remain as least disturbed as possible.
He adds UNICEF and WHO should also be answering questions about sending children below the age of 12 years to school as they have clearly defined that the type of receptors in the noses of children are much less.
He further says at the end of the day, they have to play a nuanced role in doing a risk/benefit analysis and having zero risk is in the hands of each and everyone that includes the parents and everyone around them.
Dr. Fong has also highlighted they have cases of COVID-19 in every sector of employment that includes teachers, doctors, nurses and various ministries so there is nothing special about schools recording positive cases.
He says this is one of the reasons why they advised for its gradual re-opening.
Dr. Fong adds this was for them to start practicing some of the standard operating procedures to be implemented when there is a case in school so that they can do enough to sort out the case, close contacts and protect the school environment.
And as parents continue to raise concerns regarding the safety of their children in schools, Minister for Education Premila Kumar had said on Tuesday that they are always monitoring the situation.
Kumar says the Education Ministry is not a health expert and they rely on the Ministry of Health, UNICEF, and the World Health Organisation to guide them on safety measures.
She says it is not that the Ministry of Education has made a decision, and knowing very well they are not health experts, they have had a series of meetings on a daily basis to exchange information and to monitor the situation.
A number of parents have contacted us and raised concerns about the safety and security of their children as it has also been confirmed by the Ministry of Health that they have received reports of teachers and students testing positive for COVID-19 in schools.
We have been asking the Ministry of Education from earlier this week on how many teachers and students have tested positive for COVID-19 so far and how many positive cases and primary contacts have been isolated.
Fijivillage has asked how the Ministry is implementing COVID safe measures when some classrooms in the country have more than 50 students.
We have also asked what actions can the heads of schools take against those students who are not following all the protocols as there have been reports of students not wearing masks despite being told by the teachers.
Kumar had said on Tuesday that they will consider other measures if things get out of hand.
She says this includes splitting the class into two and then allowing one set of students to come on one day and another set on another day however that is not required at the moment.
The Minister adds this whole week was about raising COVID-19 awareness not only in schools, but to prepare students to be part of the new normal generally.
Concerns are also being raised that children under the age of 12 years will return to school soon but none of them have been vaccinated and the chances of further transmission is high.
There is also a risk that it will be even harder for teachers to ensure these children follow all the protocols in place.
We sent further questions to the Ministry of Education to clarify the concerns raised by many parents.
They are yet to respond.
Permanent Secretary for Heath Doctor James Fong says if you do test positive or develop COVID-like symptoms, their advice is that you self-isolate at home for seven days.
He says positive people should begin their seven day isolation period from the day they tested positive or from the day their symptoms began.
Doctor Fong says contacts of cases do not need to self-isolate, but they should monitor themselves for symptoms and self isolate if symptoms present.
The Permanent Secretary says if you need to leave home for an essential purpose, please wear a mask, complete any essential business you have and go straight back home.
He says they cannot force you to keep yourself at home as much as possible.
Dr Fong says they cannot keep you from meeting friends, cannot count your seven days for you but instead, they are counting on you to be responsible enough to follow the rules and slow the spread of the virus.
He adds that the total number of COVID cases that they are recording is an underestimate of the current problem and this is due to their priority testing regime. Doctor Fong says they are not downplaying the problem but the problem is that they will not be able to test every single body who has a flu like illness as they do not have the test to do it, nor do they have a capability to follow up all those positives.
He says this is not only in Fiji but is present throughout the whole world.
Doctor Fong says although majority of the vaccinated people will have mild symptoms from Omicron, there are people who are still vulnerable to severe disease even if they are fully vaccinated.
He says we need to ensure these vulnerable adults receive their booster doses and until we achieve wider booster coverage, the focus now must be to suppress transmission through basic measures like masking and physical distancing in order to protect these vulnerable Fijians, which include persons over 50 years and those with underlying health conditions, like diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease and asthma, and those who are obese or are pregnant.
He says even without Omicron they were expecting the third wave from the way they saw the behaviour happening in the community.
Dr Fong says this tells us that we need to adapt our approach to confronting this virus. He says this tells us that we cannot apply an old containment response to take on new variants.
Dr Fong says while Omicron may be mild for nearly everyone it infects, it has a faster rate of transmission and this means it may not be mild for the health system because even if the percentage of people who require hospitalization due to COVID-19 may be lower, those who are unvaccinated and those with underlying health conditions who are not boosted may still suffer severe disease and burden our health system.
Dr Fong says while Omicron may be mild for nearly everyone it infects, it has a faster rate of transmission and this means it may not be mild for the health system because even if the percentage of people who require hospitalization due to COVID-19 may be lower, those who are unvaccinated and those with underlying health conditions who are not boosted may still suffer severe disease and burden our health system.
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