26 May, 2021, 1:00 am
Police constables Waisea Seseilau (left) and Waisale Waqavakatoga at
the Sawani border checkpoint during
the lockdown period.
Picture: ELIKI NUKUTABU
Fijian authorities are being urged to go to a broad lockdown with its containment of community transmissions of COVID-19 in dire straits and worsening.
Fiji’s Ministry of Health reported its largest single increase in case load from community transmission in a day, 18 in the morning and another six by evening, on May 24.
All this with some 11,000 test swabs awaiting outstanding results from Australian labs, while many citizens remain ambivalent to the urgency of new norms.
Experts and political pundits are arguing that more is needed and urging Fijian authorities to go to a broader lockdown within Viti Levu, Fiji’s most populous island and home to 70 per cent of the population, that is about 600,000 people.
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Sayed-Khaiyum meets private sector representatives to discuss the current challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic
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Fred Wesley
IMAGE: THE FIJI TIMES
Bula
There was no news conference tonight, however, the permanent secretary for Health and Medical Services Dr James Fong announced two new cases of COVID-19.
Two new cases
They are both cases of local transmission.
The first, he said, is the husband of case 159 from the Vunimono cluster and he has been in isolation since Wednesday, May 12.
The second case is a healthcare worker from the Colo-i-Suva isolation ward who is now in isolation himself. Both patients are asymptomatic.
Of the 51 cases we have now, four are border quarantine cases, 35 are local cases and 12 are classified as cases of community transmission.