More closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras will be established in quarantine facilities to ensure people working there use personal protective equipment (PPE) properly and follow passenger handling protocols, says Health Ministry permanent secretary Dr James Fong.

He made the comment in response to media queries about how the new Indian variant of COVID-19 was passed on to case 73 – the soldier working at a Nadi quarantine facility.

“Whether it’s from the luggage or from direct contact with the persons – all that is possible,” he said.

“But at the end of the day we can only suppose or make presumptions or theories on what was possible in terms of the transfer.

“As far as the medical people are concerned, we are only concerned about the fact that a transfer occurred.”

Dr Fong said they were “quite confident” in the way luggage was handled at the Nadi International Airport.

“Fiji Airports Ltd has a very stringent program of managing luggage and disinfecting luggage, so we are quite confident of that program.

“The contact between a passenger and those manning the quarantine facilities – yes we will have to start working a little bit more strongly on that.

“Our PPE measures do require surveillance with regards to CCTV.

“And that’s one area we are going to be working on – getting more CCTV – ensuring we can reduce the number of blind spots so that we have ongoing surveillance over the PPE practices that are happening within the quarantine area.”