Going three to four weeks without recording a positive test is one of the parameters that authorities consider when gauging whether an area is or close to being COVID-contained, Fiji’s Permanent Secretary for Health Dr James Fong says.
It has been 15 days since a positive case was recorded in Ra, having registered its latest known case on 30 April, but Dr Fong says they are still analysing data gathered from screening and swabbing done in the area to map out the next steps, let alone declare it COVID-contained.
Similarly, data gathered from the screening and swabbing planned for the 4-day lockdown in the Suva-Nausori containment zone will determine “the action further down the line.”
“The four days is not going to stop anything. The four days is to gather as much information as we got to decide as to long term measures that are required to actually stamp out the virus. The only information I got for sure that we have new cases evolving within the Suva-Nausori containment areas and we have generated a wide variety of contacts from them,” Dr Fong said.
“The main parameters of COVID-containment is you don’t get any cases in your screening clinics. The point we are making also is that we are confident in our distribution of screening clinics and the criteria we are using for swabbing and testing that it will tell us when there are no more cases in the community.”
Today, tracing, screening and swabbing began in earnest along the Suva-Nausori containment zone. At the Rewa subdivision (Nakasi, Naulu and Davuilevu) screening base in Nakasi this morning, where their tracing and swabbing personnel were busy carrying out their work – which included wiping down their vehicles and doffing their PPEs as soon as they return from the field, take a 15 minutes breather before they set off again.
Photo: Rewa subdivision (Nakasi, Naulu and Davuilevu) screening base in Nakasi
