MHMS FIJI
MHMS FIJI

Archives 2021

COVID-19 Situation Update

COVID-19 Afternoon Update
Wednesday 26th May 2021

Transmission Update

We have recorded 13 new cases since the last update yesterday evening. All 13 are primary contacts of previously announced cases. 12 of the new cases are from Fiji Navy staff who are primary contacts of the Navy staff case announced yesterday. Investigations are ongoing and no links have yet been established with other clusters.

The 13th new case is another member of the Kinoya household announced last night. This means that there are now 11 positive cases in this one household.

There are now 121 active cases in isolation. We have now recorded 272 cases in Fiji since our first case was detected in March of last year, with 147 recoveries.

Response Update

While cases continue to be reported from the Central Division it has now been 14 days since a case was reported from the Western Division.

Lautoka Hospital has completed 21 days of sequestration. It has also been 21 days since the last case was recorded from within Lautoka Hospital, with 4 rounds of testing completed for all patients and staff. Tomorrow the patients who were sequestered in the hospital will be discharged home, as will the staff. Only emergency services will be operational at the hospital from tomorrow, and the plan is to open the hospital to the public by June 1st. FEMAT will also wrap up operations in Lautoka once the hospital is open next week.

Vaccination Update

The vaccination campaign restarted on Monday, with mobile vaccination teams targeting communities in the Suva-Nausori containment zone.
A daily list of vaccination sites will be released by the evening.

Since Monday 9069 doses of the vaccine have been administered, which includes 7121 first doses in Suva-Nausori, and 1948 second doses for frontliners across Fiji. Two doses, spaced 10-12 weeks apart, are necessary to get the full protective effect of the vaccine. As of 25th of May 107,014 people in Fiji have received the first dose of the vaccine, this is 16.5% of our target population of 650,000 individuals. A total of 2913 individuals are now fully vaccinated.

COVID-19 Update – 25-05-2021
Media Release
COVID-19 Update
Tuesday, 25 May 2021
Evening Update
There are 11 new positive cases to report since the afternoon update and as of 6 pm today.
Ten of the new cases are from one household in Kinoya linked to the Extra Supermarket cluster. The eleventh case is a work contact of case 206 from the Samabula cluster, who works for FICAC. Contact tracing investigations are ongoing and the public should expect to see our teams on the ground conducting these investigations throughout Suva.
Though cases have currently not been detected in Lami, the public should also expect to see increased screening activities there in an effort to ramp up our community surveillance beyond the current known areas where cases have been found.
12 patients have recovered, which means there are now 108 active cases in isolation. Fiji has had 259 cases in total, with 147 recoveries and 4 deaths, since our first case was reported on March 19th, 2020.
Results have been received from the remaining 4000 of the 11,000 total backlogged samples that were sent to two private laboratories in Melbourne, Australia, for testing. There are zero positive results reported from these samples. Our reference lab, the Melbourne Diagnostic Unit Public Health Laboratory at the Doherty Institute, is now conducting verification of these results.
A total of 92,821 COVID-19 laboratory tests have been conducted since we started testing in early 2020.
A total of 2496 samples were tested yesterday. The daily average of testing over the last 7 days is 2496 tests per day. The 7-day average daily test positivity is at 0.5%, and also 0.8% on the last day. An average of 2.8 tests per 1000 population was conducted daily over the last 7 days, with 2.8 tests per 1000 population also on the last day.
COVID-19 Situation Update

COVID-19 Update

4pm Tuesday, 25th May 2021   

Transmission Update  

We have recorded ten new cases of COVID-19 since yesterday evening. Nine are contacts of earlier announced cases that were identified through ongoing contact tracing and screening investigations. This includes three cases from the Queen Elizabeth Barracks in Suva. The nine new cases come from the following areas:

1 from Tacirua

3 from Muanikoso

 1 from Kinoya

1 from Navosai in Narere

3 at Queen Elizabeth Barracks

The 10th case has not yet been linked to any other cases at this early stage of the investigation. He is a member of the Fiji Navy from Tacirua who presented to the Nuffield Health Centre in Tamavua with symptoms, where he was swabbed and tested positive.  This tenth case was identified through our community surveillance programme, which includes swabbing of people who present with symptoms to screening clinics or health centres. Depending on what our investigations reveal about this case, the Ministry may recommend extensions of health protection measures.

There are now 109 active cases in isolation, with the total number of cases recorded in Fiji since our first case in March 2020 now at 248. We have had 135 recoveries and 4 deaths.

Testing and Screening Update    

We have now conducted 585,709 screenings and 27,026 swabs through our community mobile screening program, in addition to screenings at health facilities and fixed screening clinics and the contact-tracing screenings conducted for positive cases.

COVID-19 Situation Update
Media Release​​​​​​
COVID-19 Update
Monday, May 24rd 2021: Evening Update
There are 3 new positive cases to report as of 6 pm today.
The first 2 cases are from Nadawa, and 7 miles Nasinu, and are primary contacts of case 211 from Tacirua. The 3rd case is from Samabula and is also a primary contact of an earlier case.
We can now confirm that there was one positive test result in the first batch of 7000 samples sent to Australia- this was initially reported as inconclusive during the afternoon update today, while the rest of the test results were negative. However, we can also confirm that this positive sample, from Natabua Health Centre in Lautoka, is from an already known COVID-19 case that was identified as a contact of another case and had tested positive for later samples already tested in Fiji. She was isolated, treated and then released after recovering. No further action is needed for this case, and our total case number remains the same.
One patient has recovered, which means there are now 99 active cases in isolation. Fiji has had 238 cases in total, with 135 recoveries and 4 deaths, since our first case was reported on March 19th, 2020.
A total of 90,325 COVID-19 laboratory tests have been conducted since we started testing in early 2020.
A total of 1933 samples were tested yesterday. The Nadi Hospital laboratory started testing for COVID-19 on 21st May using their 4 new GeneXpert machines, and their testing numbers are being added to the daily test counts. The daily average of testing over the last 7 days is 2500 tests per day. The 7-day average daily test positivity is at 0.4%, and also 0.4% on the last day. An average of 2.8 tests per 1000 population was conducted daily over the last 7 days, with 2.2 tests per 1000 population in the last day.
-ENDS-
COVID-19 Update – 24-05-2021

Media Release

COVID-19 Update : 4pm

Monday May 24th 2021

Transmission Update

We have recorded five new cases since the last update yesterday evening. Four of these cases are in Muanikoso–from 2 separate households. They were all located within the Muanikoso Containment Zone, and were picked up as part of the mass screening currently ongoing in that area.

The other case is from Samabula and is an employee of a catering group that was providing food after a funeral gathering held at the Samabula cluster household. This person was a close contact of a case from that cluster.

There are now 97 active cases in isolation with the total number of cases recorded in Fiji since our first case in March 2020 now at 235.

Our recent experience tells us that other than within households, this virus has been spreading most commonly within workplaces and during social gatherings. Particularly workplaces with large numbers of staff, like supermarkets, are at high risk for spread of the infection.

We are urging all workplaces, including supermarkets and other commercial establishments to review your procedures and make sure you are complying with the protocols we have established to eliminate spread. Commercial establishments and operators of public transport vehicles must enforce limits on capacity, enforce masking requirements, be diligent about cleaning and disinfecting surfaces, ensure staff do not work if they are sick, and make sure all employees comply and also enforce these procedures. And everyone must download the careFiji app. The Ministry of Commerce, Trade, Tourism and Transport will work with commercial business owners–particularly supermarkets–and the transport industry to make sure that everyone understands the practices they must follow.

We have also seen evidence that people have traveled on public transport or done shopping despite experiencing symptoms. We all must take individual responsibility for stopping the spread of this virus. Everyone should recognize the symptoms by now. The typical symptoms of COVID-19 include fatigue, fever, sore throat, cough, shortness of breath, body aches, or a sudden loss of taste or smell.

If you experience ANY of these symptoms–even one, and even if it is very mild–you must be screened immediately. Go to the nearest mobile screening centre, wearing a mask and maintaining two metres physical distance between you and any other person you encounter. If you do not know where the nearest screening centre is located, call 158 and ask. Do not use public transport if you have any symptoms. If you cannot get to a screening centre, again, call 158 for assistance.

It is very important for everyone who experiences any of these symptoms to assume that they have contracted the virus. Do not assume that it’s nothing and just hope for the best. The responsible act is to assume the worst and act with extreme caution.

Testing and Screening Update

We are particularly concerned about settlements where people live in close proximity to each other, and we want to keep them free of infection, so we will now increase our swabbing within a settlement where there are known cases.

Results from 7,000 backlogged swab samples sent to Australia for testing have been received. All were negative except for one inconclusive sample from Lautoka that will be retested. The high number of negative results is not unexpected as the majority of samples that were backlogged, and then shipped to Australia in this batch of 7,000, were from outside the containment areas, including a large number of samples from the Northern Division. We are awaiting results from another 4,000 swab samples undergoing testing in Australia. The majority of samples in this second batch are from the containment areas of Suva, Nasinu, Nausori, Nadi and Lautoka.

We have now conducted 576,050 screenings and 24,855 swabbings with our community mobile screening program, in addition to the health facility, fixed screening clinics and the contact tracing screenings conducted for positive cases.

-ENDS-