The public is advised that after risk assessment and contact tracing efforts conducted by the Ministry of Health and Medical Services, New World Supermarket, Nausori, is a site of interest and will be temporarily closed on Tuesday 22 June 2021. This is to allow for a thorough disinfection process before the supermarket services resume as normal. The Health Ministry requests understanding and cooperation from the public as they continue their efforts to contain and stop the COVID-19 virus from spreading in the community.
48 Hour LOCKDOWN Qauia
PUBLIC ADVISORY
The Ministry of Health and Medical Services advises residents of Qauia Settlement, Lami of a 48-hour lockdown from 4am, Tuesday 22 June, to 4am Thursday 24 June 2021. The aim of the lockdown is to conduct rapid screening, tracing, swabbing and quarantine or isolation of cases of interest in Qauia Settlement.
This exercise is an opportunity to check for COVID-like symptoms and travel/movement histories that may have put residents in the path of Fijians living with COVID -19. It is a necessary step and one of the ways to stop this infection from spreading further in the community.
Mobile Screening Teams will be visiting households within the boundaries highlighted on the map. The physical boundary will be determined by the RFMF C-19 taskforce, Health and Police team on site in Qauia who will be conducting COVID-19 screening, tracing and swabbing in this 48 hour period.
In the interest of public and personal safety, residents within the marked area are requested to stay home and avoid any contact with people from other households. If you experience COVID like symptoms (sore throat, fever, loss of taste/smell, shortness of breath, aches and pains, fatigue/tiredness) please contact 158 immediately. A medical team will reach out to you at your home.
The Ministry of Health requests understanding and cooperation from the public for this exercise and assures all residents swabbed and tested, that information obtained will be kept confidential.
COVID-19 Update – 21-06-2021
Media Release
COVID-19 Daily Update
Monday, 21 June 2021
Transmission Update
We have recorded 126 new cases in the 24 hour period ending at 8.00am today. The active case distribution may be viewed on the map at the following link http://bit.ly/3vE2ZBb
We sadly report another death at CWM Hospital. This is a 42-year-old male admitted to hospital with leptospirosis. He also tested positive for COVID-19 during his admission. His death is being investigated by his doctors to determine if it will be classified as a COVID-19 death.
There have been 59 recoveries since the last update, which means that there are now 1542 active cases in isolation. There have been 2020 cases during the outbreak that started in April 2021. We have recorded a total of 2090 cases in Fiji since the first case was reported in March 2020.
There have been 532 recoveries, and 7 deaths due to COVID-19 in Fiji, with 5 of these deaths during the current outbreak. 8 COVID-19 positive patients have died from pre-existing non-COVID-19 related illnesses. 1 death is under investigation.
Testing Update
A total of 130,002 samples have been tested since this outbreak started in April 2021, with 172,863 tested since testing began in early 2020. 2743 tests have been reported for June 19th. This number is expected to increase as more testing number data is received from all labs. The national 7-day daily test average is 3178 tests per day or 3.6 tests per 1000 population. The national 7-day average daily test positivity is 4.1% and continues on an upward trend despite high levels of testing.
Vaccination Update
Vaccination has recommenced today at the 16 vaccination sites and 4 mobile teams in the western division, and the 12 vaccination sites and 1 mobile team in the central division. The Ministry will be providing an update on today’s vaccination activity in tomorrow’s report.
Epidemic Response
We have recorded an increase in new cases from the Lami area. The Ministry is working with other Government agencies and the community to establish additional isolation facilities in the Lami area to cater for the positive cases from the area. Additional isolation facilities have also been pursued in the Nausori area to complement the current capacities we have, and to cater for positive cases from the Nausori area. Members of the public are advised to continue to practise COVID-19 safe measures to protect themselves, their families, and their communities.
An important part of our COVID-19 response was to use various technologies available to us, and these technologies were of immense benefit to our organizing of information for planning, implementation and deployment of our resources.
One such technology is the use of geospatial information, which greatly assisted my team in organizing information collected from the ground and presented in a map that could be understood by my team and those on the ground.
Today, I am pleased to announce the launch of the CoVID-19 Dashboard, where active cases in Fiji can now be viewed on online using an interactive GIS Dashboard. The Dashboard will give members of the public an interactive map that provides information on active cases and their locations. As long as users have internet connection, they can navigate on the map to view the case spread at various locations across the country. It is anticipated that this dashboard will provide members of the public situational awareness of where the active cases are, and follow the relevant safety guidelines put in place by my Ministry to protect themselves and their families.
On behalf of the Ministry of Health and Medical Services I would like to acknowledge the Ministry of Lands and Mineral Resources in providing their geospatial information resources to for this dashboard.
COVID-19 Update – 20-06-2021
Media Release
COVID-19 Daily Update
Sunday, 20th June, 2021
Transmission Update
We have recorded 166 new cases in the 24-hour period ending at 8:00 am today.
While a majority of the new cases are linked to existing clusters, going forward, we will now report on areas of interest since the number of positive cases have grown. Community transmission is broad throughout the Central Division. In this respect we will post on various Government social media platforms, heat maps to delineate case distribution within the Central and Western divisions. Everyone should be practice COVID Safe measures whenever you leave your home, irrespective of where you live and where you are going.
As expected we are seeing a few more cases arising in the Lami area. The current priority is therefore to prevent the export of cases into the other non-containiment zones. As such any request to move outside of the Central Division to other areas of Viti Levu and from Viti Levu to Vanua Levu and the Maritime zone needs to be strictly regulated. Pre-departure swab tests and Quarantine capability are being expanded and strengthened to reduce the risk of spread within and beyond Viti Levu.
We sadly report another death today of a 77 year old man who was bed ridden at home for several months. He was diagnosed as Covid 19 positive by the CWM screening team. While he had pre-existing medical conditions, based on available clinical data the consensus is that this represents a Covid Death. This brings our total Covid-19 deaths to date in Fiji to 7. The family has been counselled and further containment measures have been activated.
Screening update
The 56 stationery screening clinics remain operational throughout the country. A total of 3901 individuals were screened and 561 swabbed at the clinics in the last 24 hours. The screening clinics have now screened 177,003 individuals and swabbed 22,622 individuals since commencement.
Testing Update
We continue to do tests at high levels and we will update our testing numbers in our next report.
Vaccination Update
Our vaccination teams will resume tomorrow Monday 21 June 2021. Last night, we received 50,000 doses of Astrazeneca vaccine as part of the Australian Government Support.
With the arrival of more vaccines we will not only ramp out our roll out on Viti Levu put also recommence in the Northern and Eastern Divisions.
Areas of Interest with heat maps to delineate case distribution within the Central and Western divisions:
COVID-19 Update – 19-06-2021
Media Release
COVID-19 Update
Saturday, 19 June 2021
Transmission Update
We have recorded 150 new cases in the 24-hour period ending at 8:00 am today.
117 cases are from the following known clusters:
Nasinu Police Barracks: 1
RFMF: 1
Townhouse Hotel: 18
Public Rental Board: 1
CWMH: 32
Freshet: 3
Navosai: 7
Mineral Resources Department: 9
Waila: 9
Vunimono: 1
Max Value Supermarket Lami: 1
Muanikoso: 4
Caubati: 1
Korovou: 2
Vunivivi: 1
FPBS: 26
A new cluster has been identified at the Nasese Medical Centre, with 1 new case reported today, adding to the 6 cases already in this cluster.
7 cases are primary contacts of other cases – this includes 3 cases from Charles St. Toorak.
2 cases presented to the FEMAT facility and are under investigation.
23 cases from the following areas are under investigation to determine if they have links to other cases – they are currently considered as cases of community transmission: Salato Rd, Tamavua (1) Duvula Rd, Nadera (4), Bryce Street, Raiwaqa (1), Sanpuran, St Nausori (1), Navuso, Nausori (1), Anorogo Pl, Davuilevu (1), Muana Village, Toga, Nausori (5), Naitalasese, Bua Rd (1), Matanimoli Village, Noco (1), Totogo Police (4), Wainibokasi (2), Qauia, Lami (1).
Investigations into the death of a 49-year-old at CWM Hospital reported yesterday are now complete. The patient’s doctors at CWMH have determined that his death was a result of the severe non-COVID-19 pre-existing medical condition that he was receiving treatment for during his admission at the hospital and not COVID-19.
21 more COVID-19 patients have recovered, which means there are now 1311 active cases in isolation. There have been 1728 cases during this outbreak that started in April 2021.
We have recorded a total of 1798 cases in Fiji since the first case was reported in March 2020. There have been 473 recoveries and 6 deaths due to COVID-19, with 4 of the deaths during the outbreak that started in April 2021. A total of 8 COVID-19 positive patients have died from pre-existing non-COVID-19 related illnesses.
Testing Update
A total of 124,264 samples have been tested since this outbreak started in April 2021, with 167,125 tested since testing began in early 2020.
3016 tests have been reported for June 17th. The national 7-day daily test average is 3297 tests per day or 3.7 tests per 1000 population per day at a 7 day rolling average. The 7 day average daily test positivity is 3.2% and has continued to trend upwards with increasing daily case numbers, despite high levels of testing.
Epidemic Outlook
The 7 day average of new cases per day has increased to 105 cases per day or 119 cases per million population per day.
The increasing numbers of cases in the Lami-Suva-Nausori containment zone clearly indicate ongoing community transmission. There are also clusters in Naitasiri and one cluster in Korovou.
There continue to be cases reported in Nadi, but so far they are from within the containment zone in the Nawaka area.
To date, this outbreak appears contained to Viti Levu, with the Northern and Eastern divisions yet to detect a case.
A multi-disciplinary Australian Medical Assistance Team has deployed to Fiji to assist with the provision of healthcare services, primarily in the Central Division. Our main priority will be on creating additional medical spaces that can offer non-COVID care to patients and strengthen our infection control protocols. The AUSMAT team will deploy for 28-days starting next week. The members of the deployment are all fully-vaccinated so we have amended our quarantine requirements to ten days to allow them to deploy quickly upon arrival to Fiji.
While we have not seen high rates of hospitalisations and fatalities so far that could change if the virus spreads further among more vulnerable segments of our population. The best way to protect those most vulnerable in our society is by adopting common-sense measures to protect ourselves from the virus and stop us from becoming carriers. Just because young people are less likely to suffer from severe disease, does not mean they cannot pass the virus to others who may be more susceptible to be hospitalised or die due to COVID-19. If you need to leave the house, wear a mask or face covering. Do not gather. Maintain a physical distance of two metres from others at all times. Install careFIJI and keep Bluetooth turned on whenever you leave the home. Wash your hands often with soap or use an alcohol-based hand sanitiser. And when you have the chance to be vaccinated, come forward.