NANISE NEIMILA
The Ministry of Health and Medical Services will continue to work with development partners and civil servants to vaccinate those Fijians in communities that have not been fully vaccinated.
This plan was outlined by the Minister for Health and Medical Services Dr Ifereimi Waqainabete as he updated Parliament last week on the mitigation plan on COVID-19 operations.
With the opening of the local borders within Viti Levu and movement through this borders, Minister Waqainabete urged all Fijians in the north and around the maritime areas to get fully vaccinated.
“We know that in the Northern Division, those fully vaccinated is sitting at about 50 percent, but we would also like the Northern Division and many islands in the maritime areas, to be able to raise their fully-vaccinated numbers, similar to what we are seeing right across the country.”
“In preparations for the opening of international borders and the influx of visitors into the country, we have recently established our Border Health Protection Unit under the Ministry’s Health Protection Division, and play a leading role in supervising our Border Health Protection Programmes.”
Minister Waqainabete adds that the Unit, under the guidance and leadership of a senior and well-trained Medical Officer, will consolidate and strengthen infectious diseases’ surveillance, monitoring, laboratory testing and quarantine services conducted by various Units and Departments in the Ministry, working in tandem with other border control services and agencies.
“The unit has been comprehensive in its working over the last one and half years of COVID and its rudimentary framework has been there from before, including the International Health Regulations (IHR).”
“Through its collaborations with local and international border health agencies, the Unit will further boost our ability to protect our population from the threat of transnational infectious diseases and global health emergencies which also include, the COVID-19 variants that have not yet been to Fiji.”
The Ministry is revamping its Disease Surveillance Network to focus on other disease entities with potential outbreak abilities, in addition to COVID-19.
“This is also important, as we approach the cyclone season in Fiji and the ever-pressing threat of climate-sensitive diseases, if they get propagated in our communities during these climatic upheavals.”
Minister Waqainabete added the silver lining of the devastating COVID-19 outbreak was the enhancement of the laboratory testing capacity for infectious diseases in Fiji that had seen from the single machine capacity in March 2020 increase to seven health facilities in the public and private sector, testing for COVID-19 antigen capacity and to test for other communicable diseases.
“We have also increased the number of our laboratory scientists, to be able to meet this demand, but they have really been one of our important frontline workers.”
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