Fifty-one (51) people identified as contacts of the lone active case in Vanua Levu have tested negative, but the risk of community transmission remains high, Fijian health authority warns.
At this stage, pending the result of three other primary contacts, the Ministry of Health has not classified the case as a community transmission case saying that they are certain that the source of transmission was from outside Vanua Levu.
However, despite the status quo, Permanent Secretary Health Dr James Fong said they will escalate COVID-safe measures including restrict movement in areas of interest to facilitate community surveillance, carry out more contact tracing and speed up vaccination coverage.
Among those who tested negative were the worker’s six household members and eight workplace contacts.
“Furthermore, an area of restricted movement will be announced to facilitate heightened Community Surveillance, conduct more contact tracing, escalate our COVID Safe community engagement program and plan and implement a program of targeted heightened vaccination coverage throughout the Nabouwalu containment zone,” Dr Fong said.
The new case in the North was announced on the weekend. Since then, along with family members and colleagues, the positive individual is quarantined at the Malau isolation facility.
Vaccination deployment in Bua is at 73% and 8.1% for dose 1 and dose 2 respectively. For the whole of the North, 80.3% of their target population have received their first dose and 11.5%, are fully vaccinated.
