COVID-19 Update – 11-10-2021

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Last Updated on 1 year by Publishing Team


Transmission Update: We have 36 new cases of COVID-19 to report for the 24 hour period that ended at 8 am today, out of which 72% of the new cases are from the Western Division, while 28% of the new cases are from the Central Division. This epidemic curve depicts the daily positive cases since the 2nd wave of this outbreak began in April 2021. Overall, there have been 51, 465 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 54 daily cases calculated for 7th October 2021.
Deaths: We have no COVID-19 deaths to report for today. There has been one death of a COVID-19 positive patient. However, this death has been classified as a Non-COVID-19 death by the doctors as the patient died of a serious pre-existing medical condition.. There have been 653 deaths due to COVID-19 in Fiji, with 651 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 8th, 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 534 COVID-19 positive patients who died from the 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 44 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 will transition to community surveillance testing as severe disease numbers and positivity rates approach the containment phase levels.

Public Advisory:

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 Lautoka 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 night 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 we will still need individuals to get a Repatriation Pass. This requires that all repatriation travelers must be registered and issued with a Registration Reference Number for Domestic Repatriation. The registered applicants are those that have been registered for domestic repatriation on #163, MCTTT Facebook Page, and 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 obtaining a Pass can be made on the 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.