- There is little chance that the daughter had the virus when she went to school on Monday - Dr Fong.
- Dr Fong has raised serious concern about those that have revealed the name of the 14-year-old girl.
- Samples have been collected for 200 people who attended the funeral in Tavakubu. No new cases have come in.
Fiji has two new locally transmitted cases of COVID-19.
Permanent Secretary for Health Doctor James Fong says they are two children from Wainitarawau Settlement in Cunningham which is a containment area.
These two children are a 7-month-old son and the 14-year-old daughter of the 40-year-old woman from Cunningham who was earlier confirmed as a positive case of COVID-19.
Testing and contact tracing has continued through last night and into today.
He says they want everyone to know that they have not identified any new clusters of cases in the community.
Doctor Fong says both children initially tested negative for the virus, on Tuesday April 20th, the day they entered isolation.
He says that gives them a high degree of confidence that they are latent cases, which means they were entered into isolation before they became infectious.
Doctor Fong says while the 14-year-old girl did attend school on Monday April 19th, they believe there is little chance that she passed the virus to others.
However, out of an abundance of caution, they will be running a screening exercise based on the daughter’s movements.
He also reminds everyone that the ministry identified this family because they made the patriotic decision to come forward and because they were honest with them about where they had been.
Doctor Fong says they deserve our thanks and nothing less.
He stresses that the virus is the problem, not any one person, and we have to at all costs, protect the privacy of Fijians living with the virus.
Following the circulation of an internal school email that reveals the name of the 14-year-old girl, Doctor Fong says they are talking about children here, some of the most vulnerable members of our society.
He says children are anxious, they are scared, and the last thing they need is to have their privacy violated, and their information blasted out online.
Doctor Fong says the stigmatisation of Fijians living with COVID-19 has very real consequences, when bullies online take advantage of other people’s suffering
Meanwhile he says they have collected samples that will be tested for 200 people who attended the funeral at Tavakubu that was attended by the hotel staff case.
They have not confirmed any new positive cases at this time.
The window for transmission is still open, and contact tracing for the funeral continues, so that may change.
Nasomo in Tavua, has also been identified as a screening zone based on the movements of the case from Wainitarawau Cunningham after the funeral.
The same rules established for the Wainitarawau Settlement apply here: No one is allowed to leave. Those who reside in the community may return, but they must stay there for at least the next 14 days.
The Health Ministry is still looking for the mini bus driver who drove the hotel staff on the evening of the 17th of April from the Lautoka City Mini Bus Stand to Nadi at around 5pm, as well as the passengers of that mini bus.
After their investigation into the travel history of the mother in Wainitarawau Settlement, the ministry is also expanding their contact tracing to individuals who were at Saweni Beach from 10am to 3:30pm on Saturday 17th April 2021.
Doctor Fong says if you were at Saweni Beach during that period, please call 158 right now.
Stay home until the Ministry can check on you.
Fiji also has six new border quarantine cases.
One is a 38-year-old man who arrived from Malaysia on April 8th.
The other five are members of a family that arrived on 8th April from the Philippines, two other members of the same travelling family had tested positive during entry testing; this was announced on April 17th.
There are now 19 active cases of COVID-19 in Fiji.
This is the highest number of active cases that Fiji has ever registered.
14 of these cases are at the border, and five are locally-transmitted cases.
