TWO children from Wainitarawau Settlement, Cunningham, Suva — a seven-month-old baby and a 14-year-old girl — have tested positive for COVID-19.
This was announced by Health Ministry permanent secretary Dr James Fong during a media conference yesterday.
“In total, there are now 19 active cases of COVID-19 in Fiji –– that is the highest number of active cases that Fiji has ever registered,” he said.
“Fourteen of these cases are at the border and five are what we call locally-transmitted cases, that means we know how they got the virus, community is when the virus is present and we don’t know how they got the virus.”
Dr Fong said the two were children of a 40-year-old woman who contracted the virus when she attended a funeral at Tavakubu, Lautoka, on Friday, April 16.
The woman had contact with a 53-year-old hotel quarantine worker who contracted the virus from a soldier who also worked at the Nadi quarantine facility.
Dr Fong said both children initially tested negative for the virus on Tuesday, April 20, the day they entered isolation.
“That gives us a high degree of confidence that they are latent cases, which means they were entered into isolation before they became infectious.
“So, while the 14-year-old did attend school on Monday, April 19, we believe there is little chance that she passed the virus to others.
“However, out of an abundance of caution, we will be running a screening exercise based on the daughter’s movements.”
Dr Fong said the six new border quarantine cases included a 38-year-old man who arrived from Malaysia on April 8 and the other five were members of a family who arrived earlier from the Philippines.
