Fiji has reported 485 new cases of COVID-19 and three COVID-19 deaths Sunday.
Ministry of Health permanent secretary Dr James Fong has reported that the first COVID-19 death is a 77-year-old woman from Colo-i-Suva who died at home.
Dr Fong said the woman’s family reported that she had been feeling unwell for three days.
He said the deceased was not vaccinated.
Dr Fong says the second COVID-19 death is a 75-year-old man from Nabua who also died at home.
“His family reported that he was feeling unwell for three days. He was noted to have a reduced appetite and generalised weakness. He was not vaccinated,” he said.
“The third COVID-19 death is a 38-year-old woman from Nakasi. A Ministry response team attended to her at a medical facility and transferred her to the CWM Hospital after she reported having severe symptoms of COVID-19. Her condition worsened in hospital and she died four days after admission. She was not vaccinated.”
Dr Fong said there had now been 55 deaths due to COVID-19 in the country, with 53 of those deaths during the outbreak that started in April this year.
“We also have recorded 21 COVID-19 positive patients who died from the serious medical conditions that they had before they contracted COVID-19; these are not classified as COVID-19 deaths. One death of a COVID-19 positive patient remains under investigation.
“As of the 9th July, the seven-day rolling average of deaths per day is three.”
Dr Fong said there have been 162 new recoveries reported since the last update, and that meant there were now 8576 active cases.
“There have been 10,442 cases during the outbreak that started in April 2021.
“We have recorded a total of 10,512 cases in Fiji since the first case was reported in March 2020, with 1,859 recoveries.”
On Saturday Fiji recorded 506 new cases of COVID-19 and one death. On Friday Fiji recorded the highest number with 860 new cases of COVID-19 and three COVID-19 deaths.
Dr Fong said the national seven-day daily test average is 3604 tests per day or 4.1 tests per 1000 population.
“The national seven-day average daily test positivity is 17.4 percent and continues on an upward trend.”
The WHO threshold is five percent.
As of the 10 July, the ministry said 353,303 adults in Fiji had received their first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine and 66,635 have received their second doses.
Dr Fong said this means that 60.2 percent of the target population have received at least one dose and 11.4 percent are now fully vaccinated nation-wide.
He said the seven-day average of new cases per day is 622 or 702 cases per million populations per day.
“With daily increases in cases, we are also seeing increasing cases of severe Covid-19 and increasing deaths.
“We are asking all Fijians to get vaccinated as soon as possible. Getting fully vaccinated, with two doses of the vaccine will decrease your risk of getting infected with the virus.
“But most importantly, getting fully vaccinated will significantly reduce your risk of getting severe Covid-19, even if you do get infected.
“None of the people who have died from Covid-19 in Fiji have been fully vaccinated. And we know from data from the United Kingdom that the Oxford-Astrazeneca vaccine reduces the risk of hospitalisation from the Delta variant by 92 percent,” he said
SOURCE: FIJI TIMES/PACNEWS
