Fiji’s Ministry of Health has identified more than 175,000 people who are now eligible to take the booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Ministry permanent secretary Dr James Fong said for February, an additional 175,558 individuals had become eligible for booster doses, and they were targeting to inoculate all those people.
As of February 18 (2022), Fiji has administered 96,118 booster doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine and 397 Pfizer booster doses.
“Please come forward to get your booster (third dose) vaccine if you are aged 18 or over and it has been at least five months since your second dose,” Dr Fong said.
“Increasing our vaccination coverage for the last 8 per cent of our adult population remains a challenge, despite the increased risk of severe outcomes in this group.
“We remain gravely concerned that we continue to receive requests for vaccine exemption from persons with medical comorbidities, especially NCDs; their medical condition is an indication for vaccination, and granting the exemption is not an option for any qualified medical person.”
Dr Fong said during this third wave, unvaccinated deaths in the vaccine-eligible population were occurring at 17 times the rate of vaccinated deaths.
He said that was a strong indication that many of the unvaccinated deaths in the vaccine-eligible population were preventable.
“I strongly urge anyone who hasn’t been vaccinated to get vaccinated now because COVID-19 is here to stay, and Omicron will not be the last variant. And if you are vaccinated, but know someone who isn’t, please also encourage them to protect themselves by getting vaccinated.”
