Lifting of Lami Suva and Nausori Containment Zone borders is not giving people license to go out and visit your families – Dr. Sahukhan

Head of Health Protection, Doctor Aalisha Sahukhan says thd lifting of the borders of the Lami Suva and Nausori Containment Zones is not giving people license to go out and visit your families.

She says they have seen that despite this containment, cases are increasing with the majority of these new cases linked to existing clusters that have been found through extensive contact tracing efforts.

Dr. Sahukhan says these clusters are large because they are associated with funerals and all cases have either come from large households or they have had a large number of workplace contacts.

She says the message remains the same - when you move, the virus moves with you.

Dr. Sahukhan says the 3 reasons you need to go out is to shop for food, get medical treatment or to carry out work in approved businesses.

She has also confirmed that all 46 cases that were announced on Friday are linked to existing clusters.

It was earlier announced that three cases were under investigation as they had not been linked to other cases.

3 more patients have recovered which means that there are 233 active cases in Fiji.

She says out of these, 231 cases are in the Lami Suva Nausori Containment Zone and 2 are from Nadi Containment Zone.

Fiji has had a total of 401 cases since the first case was confirmed on March 19th last year where 164 people have recovered while 4 people have died.

Dr. Sahukhan says there has been 331 cases during this current outbreak that started in April.

She says over 60,000 test for COVID-19 have been since this outbreak starting in April and in total, over 103,000 tests have been conducted since testing started early last year.

1978 samples were tested yesterday and the daily average of testing nationally is at over 2,400.

She says that the most recent data shows that testing in the Central Division is continuing to happen at a very high level as they are exceeding their target of 3 tests per population of 1,000.

She says however, they are also seeing that the average daily test positivity is also increasing and right now it is sitting at 1.5%.

Dr. Sahukhan adds that it is below the threshold of 2-5% but they know that increasing cases in the Central Division is causing an increase in test positivity.