FIJI is still a COVID-contained country and the 19th case diagnosed over the weekend does not change this, nor will Government review the reinforcement of COVID-19 restrictions.
Ministry of Health’s acting permanent secretary Dr James Fong said this as he explained the framework for safely reopening the economy.
Within the framework, Dr Fong said the ministry had a number of perimeters to decide when to move from one phase to the other.
“Our triggers for when we will institute measures are one, if there is actual community transmission, in other words we picked up a case in the community and we do not know how a person contracted the virus or who they passed it to.
“In the case of our 19th patient we know how the gentleman got the virus and who he can pass it to, and most importantly that everybody he can pass it to are all under containment.
“The only other trigger is if someone escapes from our quarantine security then we will move to stringent measures including imposing the restriction. The current case is what we call a border quarantine case and it is even common in other overseas countries.”
Considering this framework, Dr Fong said Fiji was not changing its status as it remained a Covid contained country.
