Putting it back to you

WHEN the permanent secretary for Health and Medical Services Dr James Fong gave his daily COVID-19 briefing on Tuesday night, an issue stood out.

For the 24 hours that ended at 8am on Tuesday, there were 49 new cases of COVID-19.

Dr Fong announced there were 8871 active cases. He said, as of Tuesday morning, there had been 51,203 cases during the second wave which started in April.

He also announced four COVID-19 deaths for the period of August 5 to October 3.

All deaths were reported from the Central Division. Two deaths, he said, were from August because of a delay in the issuance of the official death certificate.

Of interest would have to be the death of a nine-yearold child from Tailevu who died at home on October 3.

His family reported that he had a history of cough and shortness of breath two weeks prior. He was not in the target population that is eligible to receive the vaccine.

This, we hope, will ensure we are all vigilant moving forward.

We hope Fijians will shrug aside any thoughts that the virus is weak.

It seems far too many people are starting to live life dangerously. They assume they are immune and the virus will not affect them

Let’s cut out any mistaken assumption that the virus is weakening. We cannot afford to be drawn into a false sense of security, assuming everything is rosy.

Remember our children are among vulnerable people who are still out there.

The Delta variant has caused many challenges for many nations around the world.

It kills!

We have a duty to stay on course. We have an obligation to keep our children safe.

Our challenge is to remain focused.

There have now been 638 deaths due to COVID-19 in Fiji, with 636 of these deaths during the second wave alone. This is too high! This is a reflection of how we responded to the second wave. Far too many have died in Fiji.

Remember the national seven-day average daily test positivity is 5.4 per cent, which, according to Dr Fong, is on a downward trend, but it still is indicating a high level of community transmission. This is why we must continue to be vigilant.

We just cannot afford to relax our guards.

Life certainly isn’t easy now. However, the onus is on us to keep ourselves safe. We know what must be done. We know the boundaries. We know the rules and why we must adhere to good advice!