The Ministry of Health says eight children died due to COVID-19 in the third wave.

It says seven of these children had significant pre-existing medical conditions while one child had no known underlying medical condition.

Permanent Secretary Doctor James Fong says an analysis of the total 138 deaths recorded in the third wave shows that while the Central Division had the highest absolute number of deaths, the Northern Division had the highest rate of death when adjusted for population.

He says since the last update, 62 new cases of COVID-19 have been recorded of which 55 new cases were recorded on Tuesday and seven new cases in the last 24 hours ending at 8 am yesterday.

Doctor Fong says of the 62 cases recorded, two were recorded in the Central Division; seven were recorded in the Western Division, six were recorded in the

Northern Division and 47 cases were recorded in the Eastern Division.

There is no new COVID-19 death to report.

There have been a total of 834 deaths due to COVID-19 in Fiji.

There are currently 256 active cases.