Fiji’s Ministry of Health and Medical Services is going to use the four-day lockdown period to trace and swab.
Ministry permanent secretary Dr James Fong said regardless of the temporary lull with the Fiji CDC temporarily sequestered, they expected in swab processing that it remained vital that the next four days was used to identify and swab the contacts of existing cases in Suva and Nausori.
“That is much easier when we know everyone is securely at home,” Dr Fong said.
“And until we have a clearer idea of the extent of transmission in the Suva-Nausori area, this lockdown serves the dual purpose of putting a firm halt on further spread.
“There may be community cases we do not know about. Keeping these potentially-positive people at home is the safest course of action.”
He said the lockdown of Suva and Nausori remained as scheduled – began last night at 11pm and would end at 4am on Wednesday, May 19.
“We’re going to use that window to trace and swab. Those are the marching orders ministry-wide. Trace. Swab. Repeat .
“Those swab results will go for processing at our operational testing sites until the Fiji CDC is fully back up and running.
“The results of that exercise will inform our next steps. At this stage, we have not made a recommendation either way on the lockdown measures expanding to other areas or lengthening in duration.”
