Fiji’s COVID Situation Different From India: Dr Aalisha
Head of the Health Protection Unit Dr Aalisha Sahukhan said the biggest difference she sees is that unlike India, Fiji did not have evidence of any community cases for one year.
“We are in a very different situation from India. We have been for over a year now,” she said.
Dr Sahukhan made these comments when comparing India’s handling of the outbreak of the
Indian variant to
Fiji’s.
She said always had from when first started.
“The case numbers would lull, it would pop up again and go down again,” she said.
“And then we have this variant which is more transmissible and there is also other variants including the UK variant that is in India.”
However, she said it was still early days and the ministry had done a lot to try and contain the virus through screening and testing.
She said Fiji’s situation in the next month or two will depend on how successful (COVID) measures were implemented and executed right now.
Dr Sahukhan is pleading with Fijians to do their part in the community.
Permanent Secretary for Health and Medical Services Dr James Fong said the difference is in the extensive contact tracing effort they do for every person who tests positive. “Most of our contact tracing coverage is way more than 98 per cent, most of it is 100 per cent, and it just takes a couple of days for us to get 100 per cent. Every time we find a case we are jumping onto it very quickly. The same reaction will happen with this sick gentleman (Fiji’s 3rd COVID-19 deceased).”
Dr Fong said they will investigate how the patient contracted the virus and will screen accordingly however they need people who have symptoms to front up and get tested. “We are also going to send mobile teams around to keep sweeping back and forth especially within Lautoka, we’ll have to get teams sweeping back and forth to keep on looking for anymore extra cases they may find,” he said.
“This is hard work but this is the work that has to be done”.
India cases, they