The Ministry of Health has recorded 13 new cases of COVID-19.

Of these, eight new cases were recorded on Tuesday and five new cases in the last 24 hours ending at 8 am yesterday.

Permanent Secretary for Health, Doctor James Fong says of the 13 cases recorded, seven cases were recorded in the Central Division; five cases were recorded in the

Western Division, one case was recorded in the Northern Division, while no cases were recorded in the Eastern Division.

Meanwhile, as of yesterday, a total of 112,295 individuals have so far received booster doses.

Dr. Fong says people are being advised to get their booster dose after at least five months from their second COVID-19 vaccine dose.

He says that Moderna vaccine and Pfizer vaccines are both available for adult booster doses adding that the Ministry’s vaccination efforts in children are currently progressing well.

Dr. Fong says they have reported the estimated numbers of adults that we wanted to vaccinate have been achieved.

However, he adds that these were estimates, and they expect there to be pockets of unvaccinated adult individuals.

The PS for Health says the impact of their vaccination program has been clearly demonstrated by the fact that case numbers and severe disease outcomes were significantly mitigated in the West during the second wave, and the higher vaccination rates contributed significantly to this.

He adds that the health impact of the last wave was mitigated by Fiji’s collective engagement in Vaccineplus measures.

Dr. Fong has also highlighted that Fiji’s border was opened safely because of the high level of protection people built up together.