Suva to go on lockdown as Fiji records new COVID-19 cases [1]
Thursday, May 13, 2021 - 17:25. Updated on Thursday, May 13, 2021 - 17:26.
By Eleanor Gee
New cases of COVID-19 in Fiji has led health officials to announce a full lockdown of Suva and Nausori starting 11:00pm Friday, 14 May up to 4:00am Tuesday, 18 May.
“That means everyone in these areas must stay home,” said Fiji’s Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Health and Medical Services, Dr James Fong.
The rest of Viti Levu will be under curfew daily from 6:00pm to 4:00am starting on Saturday; while outside Viti Levu, curfew hours are from 11:00pm to 4:00am daily.
COVID cases
Nine new COVID cases were confirmed yesterday, including three who work at a supermarket in Flagstaff, and one who is a vendor at the Nausori Market.
Both venues were closed and decontaminated.
Dr Fong said they were identifying hundreds of contacts very quickly due to the supermarket ensuring that all staff and customers had downloaded the contact tracing app and wore masks.
“Without the use of the careFIJI app, tracing individual casual contacts in a place like a crowded supermarket is extremely difficult, especially with our contact tracing teams already working overtime every day to keep up with the cases we have.”
He said while contracting the virus from a casual encounter in which both parties are masked seems rare, we are dealing with a COVID variant that WHO has designated as potentially more contagious, and certainly less predictable.
“Our contact tracing and testing through the weekend will reveal the way forward for our containment strategy.”
Meanwhile, people have been panic buying to stock up on essential items.
Dr Fong said he feared it would lead to widespread transmission of the virus.
“I hope to be wrong about that.”
He urged people to wear masks, keep a proper distance of two metres between each person, wash hands, and install the careFIJI contact tracing app and keep it switched on.