STATEMENT FROM THE MINISTRY OF HEALTH ON COVID-19 UPDATE

23/03/2021

There are 0 new cases of COVID-19 to report in this update.

Since the last update there has been 0 new recoveries, with 1 active case currently admitted at the Lautoka hospital isolation unit.

It has been 5 days since the last border quarantine case was reported.

It has been 338 days since the last case was detected outside border quarantine on April 18th 2020.

The 69 year old husband of a previously reported border quarantine case has returned a weak positive test result while completing his mandatory 14 day quarantine in a government supervised border quarantine facility in Nadi. This individual had tested positive, and was confirmed as a case of COVID-19, in January in the United States of America. He recovered and later returned negative test results. It is known that non-infectious pieces of the virus can remain detectable, and cause a weak positive test result long after the infection has passed, even after previous negative tests; therefore it is unlikely that this person is currently infectious. However, in keeping with our protocols for persons with positive test results, the individual has been transferred to the isolation unit at Lautoka hospital. Due to the weak positive test result, lack of symptoms, and history of testing positive in the USA, this is considered a historical case, and also will not be counted as a new case for Fiji.

Fiji has had 67 cases in total, with 64 recoveries and 2 deaths, since our first case was reported on March 19th 2020. The last 49 cases have been international travel associated cases detected in border quarantine.

A total of 35,383 COVID-19 laboratory tests have been conducted, with a daily average of 221 tests per day over the last 7 days, and a weekly average of 1609 tests per week over the last 2 weeks.

There are currently 847 people who have recently arrived from overseas undergoing mandatory 14 day quarantine in government supervised border quarantine facilities.

For more information on COVID-19 in Fiji please visit the Ministry of Health and Medical Services web page http://www.health.gov.fj/covid-19-updates/

The next scheduled update will be on Wednesday March 24th.