Fijians need to adopt practices that build resilience as the country goes through the present wave of COVID-19, says Ministry of Health permanent secretary Dr James Fong.
He said they knew there remained a high risk of resurgence of endemic variants and the arrival of new variants.
“Our socioeconomic survival depends on our ability to build and sustain individual and community-wide resilience,” Dr Fong said.
“We should expect that COVID-19 will be endemic, however, we need to appreciate that “endemic” doesn’t mean harmless.
“Endemic means that we expect continued circulation of the disease in the community, the baseline levels of which are yet to be determined.
“Leptospirosis, typhoid, and dengue are endemic in Fiji and they are associated with serious outcomes, especially when the number of cases increases to outbreak levels.”
Dr Fong said building resilience meant people must adopt healthier lifestyles, make COVID-safe behaviour a habit to be adopted, and mainstream medical and community-wide oversight over vulnerable persons to allow for timely access to health care.
He said it also meant building community surveillance mechanisms that use health and non-health data sources to alert authorities of impending disease outbreaks.
“Our objective is to live with the virus and at the same time ensure a high level of transmission suppression, and prevention of severe outcomes,” Dr Fong said.
