STATEMENT FROM THE MINISTRY OF HEALTH & MEDICAL SERVICES - 21.05.21

COVID-19 Update
Friday May 21st 2021

There are no new cases to report as of 6pm today.

We now have more information about the 5 cases from the same household in Muanikoso, Nasinu that were announced earlier today. As mentioned, 1 member of the household is an employee of Extra Supermarket and known primary contact of one of the cases from that cluster. She was identified as a contact on Tuesday 11th May and has been in home quarantine ever since. It is believed that she contracted the virus from the case at her place of work and then it spread within her household. The investigation by the response team has highlighted that her entire household also placed themselves in home quarantine from 11th May; they remained at home, and enlisted the support of their extended family to maintain their quarantine; dropping groceries at their gate during the quarantine period.

Based on the results of the investigations, and due to the diligence of this family in maintaining their home quarantine, we will not be locking down Muanikoso at this time. We must commend the family for their decision to adhere to the home quarantine directive issued by the Ministry. A decision that undoubtedly worked to break chains of transmission and limit further spread of COVID-19 in the community.

One COVID-19 patient has recovered today, which means there are now 61 active cases in isolation facilities. 2 are border quarantine cases, 49 were locally transmitted, and 10 are under investigation to determine the source of transmission. Cases under investigation are considered as community transmission until proven otherwise.
 
Total active cases in isolation = 61 (2 border quarantine cases, 49 locally transmitted cases, 10 under investigation)

Fiji has had 195 cases in total, with 130 recoveries and 4 deaths, since our first case was reported on March 19th 2020.

A total of 83,980 COVID-19 laboratory tests have been conducted since we started testing in early 2020.

Due to the recent temporary shutdown of Fiji CDC, testing numbers had dropped, however this has recovered to pre-shutdown levels with the daily average of testing over the last 7 days now at 1711 tests per day. A total of 3034 samples were tested yesterday, a new daily record that has surpassed our target of 3000 tests per day. The 7 day average daily test positivity is at 0.7%, with test positivity at 0.2% in the last day. An average of 1.9 tests per 1000 population were conducted daily over the last 7 days, with 3.4 tests per 1000 population in the last day.