[Source: Fiji Police]

Fiji has recorded a total of 29 new cases of COVID infections of which six were recorded last night and 23 this morning.

All these new cases are linked to existing clusters.

Permanent Secretary for Health, Doctor James Fong says all the cases are stable and are either in isolation facilities or home isolation.

[Source: Fiji Police]

Two new cases are linked to the Narere cluster, three are from the Waila cluster, nine are linked to Nawaka in Nadi cluster and 15 are from the Navy .

The Ministry has received genomic sequencing results from the reference lab in Melbourne for positive samples during the outbreak.

It adds the most recent case sample in this batch of results is case 158, an Extra Supermarket worker.

The results show that, based on the samples that have been sequenced, B.1.617.2, the variant of concern that was first identified in India, is the only variant circulating in the community.

The Ministry has also extended its surveillance testing in the community.

Dr Fong says this will be done with the security forces and in some instances, it will involve creating screening zones, especially in densely populated communities.

[Source: Fiji Police]

Fijians need to understand that the virus can easily be transmitted and Misunderstanding, complacency and wishful thinking are some of the greatest obstacles in combating the virus.

Dr Fong says people must remember that they can have the virus and transmit the virus to others even if they show no symptoms.

The Ministry analyzed data this week from 82 people and found that they had 3,444 contacts among them.

Dr Fong says this is why they ask people to go out only for essential purposes, to use the careFIJI app, to remember their movements and contacts and to cooperate fully with the contact tracers.

According to the Ministry case 309 was found to have been tested and entered twice, as the individual provided different names while being swabbed on two occasions

After correcting this error, by removing the duplicate, the Ministry has recorded 429 cases in Fiji since March of last year and 359 during the current outbreak.

There have been 3 recoveries, which means there are now 258 active cases.

All cases are stable and 2 are considered to be severe.