STATEMENT FROM THE PERMANENT SECRETARY FOR HEALTH & MEDICAL SERVICES DR. JAMES FONG - 26.05.21

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.