A 15-year-old girl from Tavua – and is among the 11 COVID deaths reported over four days from August 2 – died of severe COVID-19 with leptospirosis, clinical investigations have revealed.
Ministry of Health and Medical Services permanent secretary Dr James Fong said the teenager was presented to a medical facility in respiratory distress and was transferred to Lautoka Hospital.
He said the young girl’s family had reported that she had a fever, cough and shortness of breath two days prior to presentation.
“Clinical investigations revealed that she was positive for both leptospirosis and COVID-19. Sadly, her condition worsened at the hospital and she died one day after admission (August 3, 2021),” Dr Fong said.
“Her doctors have determined that she died from severe COVID-19 with leptospirosis. Both diseases contributed to her death. She was not vaccinated against COVID-19; she was not in the target population of people 18 years and over that are eligible to receive the vaccine,” he said.
Dr Fong also reported 968 new COVID-19 infections tonight for the 24-hour period that ended at 8am today.
Of that, 292 cases are from the Western Division and 676 cases from the Central Division.
The 11 deaths, meanwhile, were recorded for the period August 2-5; and aside from the 15-year-old girl, the other deceased persons were between the ages of 51-90 years old.
Seven of those cases were reported to have died at home, and all were not vaccinated.
Eight of those deaths were in the Central Division and three deaths in the Western Division.
Some statistics provided in tonight’s update (as at 8am, August 5, 2021):
- 968 new cases
- 292 cases – Western Division; 676 cases – Central Division
- 11 deaths recorded from August 2-5
- 4 more deaths reported of COVID-19 positive patients (classified as non-COVID deaths)
- 283 deaths due to COVID-19 recorded in Fiji to date
- Of that, 281 deaths recorded during the outbreak that started in April this year
- 385 new recoveries reported since last update (August 4)
- 23,226 active cases
- Of those active cases – 18,589 active cases – Central Division; 4637 – Western Division
- 34,818 cases recorded during the outbreak that started in April 2021
- 34,888 cases in total recorded in Fiji since the first case was reported in March 2020, with 11,233 recoveries.
Source: Ministry of Health PS Dr James Fong, COVID-19 Update, August 5 (2021)
