Suva and Nausori containment zones from Tamavua-i-Wai Bridge in Delainavesi to Logani Village is under curfew until 4am Monday.
Permanent Secretary for Health, Doctor James Fong says they cannot waste another minute locating the rest of the contacts of those who have already tested positive for COVID-19.
Doctor Fong says to allow his teams to find these Fijians quickly, the Health Ministry will lock down the Suva and Nausori Containment zones until 4am Monday.
He says rather than operate two separate containment zones, the Suva and Nausori containment areas will be consolidated into the Suva-Nausori Lockdown Zone.
The borders of the lockdown zone mirror that of the two containment areas as the police will operate checkpoints at Logani Village, Sawani and Tamavua-i-wai Bridge and the checkpoint at the 8 miles bridge near Rups Mega Nakasi will be uplifted.
To those living in Suva and Nausori, Doctor Fong says they have all been through this before and they know what it means.
Doctor Fong says no one should leave their homes.
He stresses that no one, not parents, not breadwinners, not children, no one should leave their homes.
The Permanent Secretary says the Police will be enforcing that movement restriction.
Without the Health Ministry’s approval you can only move out from your home for medical emergencies, this exemption will include kidney dialysis patients.
For the duration of this lockdown, no businesses, including supermarkets, banks and pharmacies are allowed to be open.
Some essential services like water, power, ports, and private hospitals, will be allowed to operate with authorisation granted by the Health Ministry, and they will work directly with essential service providers on those arrangements.
Deliveries across the lockdown zone borders will also go on hold as there will not be any markets or supermarkets open, so these delivery services do not need to operate through the weekend.
Doctor Fong says they have determined that at this stage, a snap lockdown has become a medical necessity for the Suva-Nausori corridor.
But they recognise that the nature of these restrictions is going to make accessing basic services extremely difficult over the next 48 hours if not impossible.
Doctor Fong says they have ordered food packs that will be delivered throughout the lockdown area for Fijians who run out of food.
If you live in the lockdown area and need to access this emergency food supply, you can call the toll-free number 161 from 9am today.
The food packs will be free.
He says please be patient, your calls will be answered. To keep things efficient, please make sure you have details, like your name, location and number of family members, readily available.
Doctor Fong says deliveries will be scheduled throughout the course of the weekend.
He says on Sunday, they are going to look carefully at what the contact tracing and testing tells them, and make a medical determination on whether the lockdown should end or extend.
For the rest of Fiji, essential businesses, such as supermarkets are open, essential movement is allowed, and the normal curfew hours from 11pm to 4am apply.
But the Health Ministry is urging everyone to please stay home.
Doctor Fong says every time you leave, you risk bringing this killer virus home with you but if you absolutely do have to leave, wear a mask and make sure you have the careFIJI installed and turned on at all times.
He says if more Fijians had downloaded the careFIJI app from the start, we wouldn’t be in this position today.
Doctor Fong also stresses that if they see gatherings or large numbers of people moving about elsewhere in Fiji, they won’t hesitate to extend these lockdown measures to other parts of the country.
