Category Press Release

Transmission Update:  In the past 7 days, 181 cases were recorded in the central division, 82 new cases in the western division, 16 new cases in the eastern division, and 6 new cases in the northern division. The central division cases constitute 71% of the cumulative total cases nationally, with the western division making up 27% and 2% in the northern and eastern divisions. Since the last update, we have recorded 64 new cases of which 39 new cases were recorded on 19/10/2021 and 25 new cases in the last 24 hours ending at 8 am this morning. Our National 7- day rolling average is 45 daily cases calculated for 15th October 2021. The weekly incidence rate graph by division indicates a continually declining trend.  Furthermore, the peak weekly incidence in the western division was approximately a third of that in the central division, and the cumulative case numbers are also reflecting a similar difference.

Deaths: This curve depicts the weekly death rate per 1000 population by divisions since the 2nd wave of this outbreak began in April 2021. Overall the death rate graphs for the Central and Western Divisions indicate a declining trend. The differences between the Central and Western are similar to the incidence of the weekly cases and are likely a reflection of vaccination levels, COVID mitigation measures, and differences in population density. There have been 663 deaths due to COVID-19 in Fiji, with 661 of these deaths during the outbreak that started in April this year. Please note that due to the time required by clinical teams to investigate, classify and report deaths, a 4-day interval is given to calculate the 7 days rolling average of deaths, based on the date of death, to help ensure the data collected is complete before the average is reported. Therefore, as of October 15th, the national 7 days rolling average of COVID-19 deaths per day is 0.1. The 7 days rolling average for COVID-19 deaths per day in the Central Division is 0.1 and 0.0 in the Western Division, with a case fatality rate of 1.28%. We have recorded 547 COVID-19 positive patients who died from serious medical conditions they had before they contracted COVID-19; these are not classified as COVID-19 deaths.

Hospitalisation: The downward trend in both the new hospital admissions and total admissions in all hospitals admitting COVID-19 patients across the country is consistent with the cases and death trends. The hospital admissions continue on a downward trend indicating a sustained positive response to COVID mitigation measures, Population density differences, and differential Vaccination rates.

Testing: 834  tests have been reported for October 19th, 2021. The 7-day daily test average is 982 tests per day or 1.1 tests per 1,000 population. The national 7-day average daily test positivity is 3.9%, which is on a downward trend, and below the WHO recommendation of 5%, and this is illustrated by the lab testing graph; also noting the reduction in the daily number of cases. Though we continue testing in high-risk areas, our case numbers and test positivity rate continue to decrease, indicating a better control of the community transmission in Fiji through the combined efforts of containment and mitigation measures with ongoing community surveillance.

Epidemic Outlook:

The 7-day average of new cases per day is 37 cases per day or 42 cases per million population per day. As previously announced by the Permanent Secretary, the daily case numbers are currently not being used as the sole indicator to monitor the progress of the outbreak. The Ministry continues monitoring other indicators such as test positivity, hospitalisations, and deaths to track the progress of the outbreak, and it is noted that there is a downward trend across all indicators of the COVID-19 epidemic in Fiji.

With the reduction in testing numbers, which is above the WHO recommended rate of 4 tests per 1,000 population per week (or approx. 3,500 tests per week), we will transition to community surveillance testing as severe disease numbers and positivity rates approach the containment phase levels.

The overall indications of the cases, hospitalization, and deaths data indicate a positive response to our overall COVID response with the epidemic in the west having a lower and delayed disease peak with lower cumulative numbers compared to the Central Division.

Public Advisory:

We are continuing the process of normalizing movement between Viti Levu and Vanua Levu. Precautions are being taken, including requiring a negative COVID-19 test before departure and a 7 day home quarantine. However, COVID-19 has reached communities in almost all countries in the world. As such, community transmission of COVID-19 in the North is to be expected. However, we anticipate that the number of cases, and cases with severe disease, will be less than that seen with the outbreak in Viti Levu, because of higher vaccination coverage.

Within Viti Levu, the outbreak was contained in the Lami to Nausori containment area long enough to allow for escalation of vaccination coverage and clinical response capacity outside the containment area. This contributed to the lower peak and the total number of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths outside the containment area within Viti Levu. We expect to see the same trend in the Northern division, especially if covid safe measures are consistently adhered to.

The best protection from COVID-19 is to get vaccinated, as it reduces your risk of being infected, and spreading the virus. But if you do get infected, it is highly protective in preventing severe disease and death. If you are eligible for vaccination (aged 15 and over) and have not been vaccinated, please get vaccinated now, and continue to practice other protective measures: avoid poorly ventilated, crowded, and confined places, wear a mask when indoors (except in your own home) and in public transport.

The people of the North are reminded to continue to get vaccinated. And with vaccination, we must continue to closely observe our COVID safe measures and avoid contained spaces and crowds to minimize the risk of the spread of the virus. The key to avoiding future restrictions and lockdowns is for the public to remain cautious about how they engage in the greater freedom they now enjoy.

The Ministry of Health and Medical Services in preparation for easing of restrictions in the North has remodeled the health service provision to ensure:

1. Community surveillance through test, trace, and track protocols is being escalated to help identify and contain any outbreak early.
2. Registration and line listing of vulnerable persons especially in poorly vaccinated areas has been done;
3. Preparations for the monitoring of positive cases and vulnerable persons to ensure better access to appropriate care plans has been made;
4. Clinical care protocols for the severe disease has been reviewed and strengthened;

Our team managing the travel to and from the North will continue to increase the number of travelers we can support to travel as the vaccination rates improve. As such:

• From yesterday, Tuesday, the 19th of October all travel from Vanua Levu to Viti Levu will not need a registration number nor a MOHMS pass.
• The Registration and MOHMS pass process will be maintained with regard to travel from Viti Levu to Vanua Levu. This is to ensure that the travel is documented for contact tracing; the negative pre-departure test and vaccination status are verified, and the travel caseload to the North team is kept manageable. All these factors are important to both preventing and being able to contain SARS-CoV 2 transmission in the North. The public is strongly advised to only do a pre-departure test only after your registration number is obtained. Also note that given the increasing vaccination rates, daily traveling quotas to the North are being increased and we will be transitioning to self-monitored home quarantine.

Travel to the maritime islands will undergo similar changes once their 2nd dose vaccination coverage reaches 80% with a 72-hour pre-departure test and on island 7-day quarantine for fully vaccinated travelers. Also for all maritime resorts, travel restrictions will be eased for fully vaccinated workers originating from Viti Levu and maritime islands that have 80% or more 2nd dose coverage.

As mentioned by our Prime Minister on the 10th of October, we plan to drop any quarantine requirement for inter-island travel once more Fijians in Vanua Levu and other islands are fully vaccinated. From 11th November we will open regular inter-island travel but only if vaccination rates in the north and maritime islands maintain a steady rise.

Vaccination 

As previously mentioned, given that dose one is beyond 95%, a verification exercise for dose one is ongoing which may result in minor changes. The dose one coverage rate has been adjusted recently to reflect our verification process.

Transmission Update: Since the last update, we have recorded a total of 146 new cases, of which 85 new cases were recorded on 16/10/2021; 39 new cases on 17/10/2021, and 22 new cases in the last 24 hours ending at 8 am this morning. This epidemic curve depicts the daily positive cases since the 2nd wave of this outbreak began in April 2021. Overall, there have been 51,777 cases recorded, with 71% of the cases from the Central Division, 27% of the cases from the Western Division, and 2% of the cases from the Eastern and Northern Division. Our National 7- day rolling average is 43 daily cases calculated for 14th October 2021.

Deaths: Overall the death rate graphs for the Central and Western Divisions indicate a declining trend. The differences between the Central and Western are similar to the incidence of the daily cases and are likely a reflection of vaccination levels, COVID mitigation measures, and differences in population density. We have no COVID-19 deaths to report for today. There have been 663 deaths due to COVID-19 in Fiji, with 661 of these deaths during the outbreak that started in April this year. Please note that due to the time required by clinical teams to investigate, classify and report deaths, a 4-day interval is given to calculate the 7 days rolling average of deaths, based on the date of death, to help ensure the data collected is complete before the average is reported. Therefore, as of October 14th, the national 7 days rolling average of COVID-19 deaths per day is 0.1. We have also recorded 547 COVID-19 positive patients who died from serious medical conditions they had before they contracted COVID-19; these are not classified as COVID-19 deaths.

Epidemic Outlook:

The 7-day average of new cases per day is 45 cases per day or 50 cases per million population per day. As previously announced by the Permanent Secretary, the daily case numbers are currently not being used as the sole indicator to monitor the progress of the outbreak. The Ministry continues monitoring other indicators such as test positivity, hospitalisations, and deaths to track the progress of the outbreak, and it is noted that there is a downward trend across all indicators of the COVID-19 epidemic in Fiji.

With the reduction in testing numbers, which is above the WHO recommended rate of 4 tests per 1,000 population per week (or approx. 3,500 tests per week), we are transitioning community surveillance testing to containment phase levels.

The overall indications of the cases, hospitalization, and deaths data indicate a positive response to our overall COVID response with the epidemic in the west having a lower and delayed disease peak with lower cumulative numbers compared to the Central Division.

Public Advisory: 

North Travel Update

We are continuing the process of normalizing movement between Viti Levu and Vanua Levu. At the present time, the movement is mediated by registration for a repatriation number and the issuance of a MOHMS travel pass. The current Covid 19 vaccine coverage rates for the North are 91.8% for dose one and 75.1% for dose 2. The team managing the travel to and from the North will continue to increase the number of travelers we can support to travel as the vaccination rates improve. From tomorrow, Tuesday, the 19th of October all travel from Vanua Levu to the central division will not need a registration number nor a MOHMS pass. The Registration and MOHMS pass process will be maintained with regards to travel from Viti Levu to Vanua Levu to ensure that the travel is documented for contact tracing, a negative pre-departure test, and vaccination status is verified, and the travel caseload to the North team is kept manageable. All these factors are important to both preventing and being able to contain Sars-CoV 2 transmission in the North. The public is strongly advised to only do a pre-departure test only after your registration number is obtained. Also note that given the increasing vaccination rates, daily traveling quotas to the North are being increased and we will be transitioning to self-monitored home quarantine.

The Ministry of Health and Medical Services in preparation for easing of restrictions in the North has remodeled the health service provision to ensure:

1.   Strengthened quarantine capacity. We have a registration and pass issuance process that will facilitate our ability to maintain oversight over both home and facility-based quarantine.  Each traveler will be provided with the rules relating to quarantine and punitive measures will be applied if there is a verified breach in any of the quarantine conditions.
2.   Community surveillance through test trace and track protocols is being escalated to help us identify and contain any outbreak early.
3.   Registration and line listing of vulnerable persons especially in poorly vaccinated areas has been done;
4.   Preparations for the monitoring of positive cases and vulnerable persons to ensure better access to appropriate care plans has been made;
5.   Clinical care protocols for the severe disease has been reviewed and strengthened;

The Ministry of Health and Medical Services Communication team together with our multi-agency community engagement team are working with community leaders to identify and strengthen mechanisms that will facilitate the monitoring of vulnerable persons and persons with COVID like symptoms and help encourage them toward timely engagement of health care services so that medical teams have a greater opportunity to provide timely treatment.

The easing of travel restrictions is needed to facilitate social and economic livelihood especially given that too many people have been stuck away from their homes since April this year. However, even with the precautions that have been put in place with this relaxation of the re-entry protocols, we do expect cases to occur in the community of the Northern Division with the movement of people from Viti Levu. The key is for this movement to be into a highly vaccinated population in the North as the vaccines are very good at preventing severe disease and death. The expectation is that the North will report cases in the community, but large numbers of people with severe disease will be prevented because of high vaccination coverage.

The people of the North are reminded that, together with vaccination, we must continue to closely observe our COVID safe measures and avoid contained spaces and crowds to avoid the risk of increased spread of the virus. The key to avoiding future restrictions and lockdowns is for the public to remain cautious about how they engage in the greater freedom they will enjoy.

COVID-19 Endemic:

A disease becomes endemic when it is expected to remain persistently present in the community. Some diseases endemic to Fiji are dengue fever and the common cold. These diseases persist at some level in the community and become epidemic when levels go beyond what is determined to be expected and acceptable. Determining what that acceptable level of disease is for COVID-19, is a work in progress but in general, it will be at the level which triggers additional control measures, Because COVID-19 is a vaccine-preventable disease, and the vaccines are very good at preventing severe disease and death, in a highly vaccinated population determining and monitoring acceptable levels, or thresholds, goes beyond case numbers. A disease that causes frequent cases in the community (like the common cold) but has a small impact on the numbers of people needing hospitalization or death, and minimal impact on the health system, will require less intervention.  This is why we will be closely monitoring the following indicators: cases, test positivity, hospitalisations, and deaths.

Vaccination 

As previously mentioned, given that dose one is beyond 95%, a verification exercise for dose one is ongoing which may result in minor changes. The dose one coverage rate has been adjusted today to reflect our verification process.

Transmission Update:  Since the last update, we have recorded a total of 53 new cases, of which 38 new cases were recorded on 14/10/2021 and 15 new cases in the last 24 hours ending at 8 am this morning.This epidemic curve depicts the daily positive cases since the 2nd wave of this outbreak began in April 2021. Overall, there have been 51, 632 cases recorded, with 71% of the cases from the Central Division, 27% of the cases from the Western Division, and 2% of the cases from the Eastern and Northern Division. Our National 7- day rolling average is 43 daily cases calculated for 11th October 2021.

Deaths:  Overall the death rate graphs for the Central and Western Divisions indicate a declining trend. The differences between the Central and Western are similar to the incidence of the daily cases and are likely a reflection of vaccination levels, COVID mitigation measures, and differences in population density.We have no COVID-19 deaths to report for today.There have been three deaths of  COVID-19 positive patients. However, these deaths have been classified as  Non-COVID-19 deaths by the doctors as the patients died of serious pre-existing medical conditions. There have been 663 deaths due to COVID-19 in Fiji, with 661 of these deaths during the outbreak that started in April this year. Please note that due to the time required by clinical teams to investigate, classify and report deaths, a 4-day interval is given to calculate the 7 days rolling average of deaths, based on the date of death, to help ensure the data collected is complete before the average is reported. Therefore, as of October 12th, the national 7 days rolling average of COVID-19 deaths per day is 0.1. The 7 days rolling average for COVID-19 deaths per day in the Central Division is 0.1 and 0.0 in the Western Division. We have also recorded 541 COVID-19 positive patients who died from serious medical conditions they had before they contracted COVID-19; these are not classified as COVID-19 deaths.

Epidemic Outlook:

The 7-day average of new cases per day is 39 cases per day or 49 cases per million population per day. As previously announced by the Permanent Secretary, the daily case numbers are currently not being used as the sole indicator to monitor the progress of the outbreak. The Ministry continues monitoring other indicators such as test positivity, hospitalisations, and deaths to track the progress of the outbreak, and it is noted that there is a downward trend across all indicators of the COVID-19 epidemic in Fiji.

With the reduction in testing numbers, which is above the WHO recommended rate of 4 tests per 1,000 population per week (or approx. 3,500 tests per week), we are transitioning community surveillance testing to containment phase levels.

The overall indications of the cases, hospitalization, and deaths data indicate a positive response to our overall COVID response with the epidemic in the west having a lower and delayed disease peak with lower cumulative numbers compared to the Central Division.

Public Advisory:

It has been 6 months since the outbreak started in Viti Levu. Within Viti Levu, the outbreak was limited to the Lami to Nausori containment area long enough to escalate vaccination and clinical response capacity outside the containment area. This contributed to a lower peak and the total number of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths outside the containment area within Viti Levu. In Vanua Levu, we have also succeeded in preventing community transmission long enough for eligible persons to get the opportunity to be vaccinated. We are now relaxing entry requirements into Vanua Levu with travelers getting more access to being able to quarantine at home and including rapid antigen tests in the pre-departure testing schedule. This will allow residents of Vanua Levu who have been stuck in Viti Levu for over 6 months, to return home. The new protocols for local repatriation travel to Vanua Levu will be uploaded on the Ministry of Health and Medical Services Website today. We also will be normalizing movement between Viti Levu and Vanua Levu once the second dose vaccine coverage in Vanua Levu is at an overall 80 percent of adults. The current coverage rates for the North are 91% for dose one and 70.4% for dose 2.

The Ministry of Health and Medical Services in preparation for easing of restrictions in the North has remodeled the health service provision to ensure:

1.   Strengthened quarantine capacity. We have a registration and pass issuance process that will facilitate our ability to maintain oversight over both home and facility-based quarantine.  Each traveler will be provided with the rules relating to quarantine and punitive measures will be applied if there is a verified breach in any of the quarantine conditions.
2.   Community surveillance through test trace and track protocols is being escalated to help us identify and contain any outbreak early.
3.   Registration and line listing of vulnerable persons especially in poorly vaccinated areas has been done;
4.   Preparations for the monitoring of positive cases and vulnerable persons to ensure better access to appropriate care plans has been made;
5.   Clinical care protocols for the severe disease has been reviewed and strengthened;

The Ministry of Health and Medical Services Communication team together with our multi-agency community engagement team are working with community leaders to identify and strengthen mechanisms that will facilitate the monitoring of vulnerable persons and persons with covid like symptoms and help encourage them toward timely engagement of health care services so that medical teams have a greater opportunity to provide timely treatment.

The easing of travel restrictions is needed to facilitate social and economic livelihood especially given that too many people have been stuck away from their homes since April this year. However, even with the precautions that have been put in place with this relaxation of the re-entry protocols, we do expect cases to occur in the community of the Northern Division with the movement of people from Viti Levu. The key is for this movement to be into a highly vaccinated population in the North as the vaccines are very good at preventing severe disease and death. The expectation is that the North will report cases in the community, but large numbers of people with severe disease will be prevented because of high vaccination coverage.

The people of the North are reminded that, together with vaccination, we must continue to closely observe our COVID safe measures and avoid contained spaces and crowds to avoid the risk of increased spread of the virus. The key to avoiding future restrictions and lockdowns is for the public to remain cautious about how they engage in the greater freedom they will enjoy.

Transmission Update: In the past 7 days, 163 cases were recorded in the central division, 211 new cases in the western division, and 17 new cases in the eastern division. The central division cases constitute 71% of the cumulative total cases nationally, with the western division making up 27% and 2% in the northern and eastern divisions.Since the last update, we have recorded 63 new cases on 12/10/2021 and 50 new cases in the last 24 hours ending at 8 am this morning. Our National 7- day rolling average is 44 daily cases calculated for 8th October 2021.The weekly incidence rate graph by division indicates a continually declining trend despite the lifting of the Lami to Nausori containment zones on the 17th of September 2021.  Furthermore, the peak weekly incidence in the western division was approximately a third of that in the central division, and the cumulative case numbers are also reflecting a similar difference.

Deaths: This curve depicts the weekly death rate per 1000 population by divisions since the 2nd wave of this outbreak began in April 2021. Overall the death rate graphs for the Central and Western Divisions indicate a declining trend. The differences between the Central and Western are similar to the incidence of the weekly cases and are likely a reflection of vaccination levels, COVID mitigation measures, and differences in population density.We have an additional ten COVID-19 deaths to report for the period of 7th July 2021- 12th October 2021. All deaths were reported from the Central Division. An analysis of the 10 deaths has highlighted that individuals were aged between 48 to 84 years, 60% (n=6) were females, 90% (n=9) of the individuals were admitted to the CWM Hospital and died as inpatients and 10% (n=1) died at home. 80 % (n=8) of these deaths were unvaccinated, the remaining 20% (n=2) received only one dose of the vaccine. This means that there were no deaths to individuals who were fully vaccinated. Nine of these deaths were reported from July today due to a delay in the issuance of the death certificates.There have been 663 deaths due to COVID-19 in Fiji, with 661 of these deaths during the outbreak that started in April this year. Please note that due to the time required by clinical teams to investigate, classify and report deaths, a 4-day interval is given to calculate the 7 days rolling average of deaths, based on the date of death, to help ensure the data collected is complete before the average is reported. Therefore, as of October 10th, the national 7 days rolling average of COVID-19 deaths per day is 0.1. The 7 days rolling average for COVID-19 deaths per day in the Central Division is 0.0 and 0.1 in the Western Division. We have recorded 537 COVID-19 positive patients who died from serious medical conditions they had before they contracted COVID-19; these are not classified as COVID-19 deaths.

Hospitalisation: The downward trend in both the new hospital admissions and total admissions in all hospitals admitting COVID-19 patients across the country is consistent with the cases and death trends. Even with the opening of Lami-Nausori containment zones in mid-September, the hospital admissions continue on a downward trend indicating the positive response to COVID mitigation measures, Population density differences, and differential Vaccination rates.

Testing:  1,372 tests have been reported for October 12th, 2021. The 7-day daily test average is 1011 tests per day or 1.1 tests per 1,000 population. The national 7-day average daily test positivity is 4.6%, which is on a downward trend, and below the WHO recommendation of 5%, and this is illustrated by the lab testing graph; also noting the reduction in the daily number of cases. Though we continue testing in high-risk areas, our case numbers and test positivity rate continue to decrease, indicating a better control of the community transmission in Fiji through the combined efforts of containment and mitigation measures with ongoing community surveillance.  We will continue to monitor the trend to better interpret the status of community transmission with other indicators.

Epidemic Outlook:

The 7-day average of new cases per day is 46 cases per day or 52 cases per million population per day. As previously announced by the Permanent Secretary, the daily case numbers are currently not being used as the sole indicator to monitor the progress of the outbreak. The Ministry continues monitoring other indicators such as test positivity, hospitalisations, and deaths to track the progress of the outbreak, and it is noted that there is a downward trend across all indicators of the COVID-19 epidemic in Fiji.

With the reduction in testing numbers, which is above the WHO recommended rate of 4 tests per 1,000 population per week (or approx. 3,500 tests per week), we will transition to community surveillance testing as severe disease numbers and positivity rates approach the containment phase levels.

The overall indications of the cases, hospitalization, and deaths data indicate a positive response to our overall COVID response with the epidemic in the west having a lower and delayed disease peak and lower cumulative numbers.

Public Advisory:

COVID-19 will be endemic in Fiji

Going forward, the Ministry of Health and Medical Services public health team will continue to monitor COVID-19 transmission and disease; and intervene when cases cross above acceptable levels. It is expected that in the short to medium term, unknown chains of transmission will persist in parts of Fiji and may not be picked up by our routine community surveillance program. They will only be revealed when an outbreak is big enough to be visible. Therefore, having no cases reported does not necessarily mean that the virus has been eliminated, it implies that the spread of the virus has been successfully contained. Further to community surveillance, remodeling health service provision is also a key strategy in our response.

The public is further reminded that while we have instigated several mandatory and punitive measures to promote adherence to COVID safe measures, public engagement and compliance remains the main determining factor to preventing further transmission and preventing the need for severe restrictions and lockdown.

As such whilst we are doing well with steady reductions in disease cases, admissions, severe disease, and death, this is a time for cautious reassurance and optimism.

Disease Surveillance for Maritime Communities

The indications from the Maritime islands that were affected by COVID-19 is that the situation is now under control. The Malolo and Yasawa community engagement initiative continues for another 10 days with civil servants from different Ministries helping to facilitate containment and vaccination efforts.  The Ministry is currently surveying other maritime communities and islands close to those maritime islands that are reporting cases of COVID-19. So far we have no report of outbreaks in other islands.

Local Repatriation Protocol

The Fiji Day announcements made on Sunday 10th October 2021, have indicated 2 major changes to the local repatriation protocol from Viti Levu to Vanua Levu.

1. The period of movement restriction within the quarantine program is now reduced to 7 days
2. The option for home quarantine will be made more available

Please note that this means that we still have a quarantine process in place that needs to be adhered to. To facilitate the oversight and testing logistics of this quarantine protocol, individuals traveling to the northern division are required to obtain a Repatriation Pass. This means that all repatriation travelers must be registered and issued with a Registration Reference Number for Domestic Repatriation. The registered applicants are those who have been registered for domestic repatriation on the toll-free number 163, MCTTT Facebook Page, or via email on domesticrepat@mcttt.gov.fj. Travelers must obtain a Pass before purchasing their tickets to travel and board a vessel or aircraft. All passes will be issued by MHMS through the Office of the Commissioners (Central and Eastern Divisions). Further inquiries on how to obtain a Repatriation Pass can be made on the toll-free number 158 COVID helpline, the contact number 3475190 which will be active from 8 am to 9 pm daily, or through the emails ccdrepat@gmail.com or covidpassmoh@gmail.com.