Fiji yesterday recorded a daily record with 12 new cases of COVID-19  and this latest figures take our active cases to 36, with 22 via local transmissions and 14 in border quarantine.

Health Ministry, Permanent Secretary, Doctor James Fong, says the good news is that there is no new cluster, as they have found the origin of the infection of the 29-year-old woman from Makoi, who was announced on Sunday.

The Makoi woman contracted the virus from her husband, who is a military personnel.  Further investigation shows that the woman’s husband was working in quarantine in Nadi and was cleared on April 10th and allowed to return to Suva on April 12th.

He had close contact with case 73 and before authorities knew he was positive, he was out and hence the Makoi case will be reclassified as a local transmission. Doctor Fong says, the Makoi family now have seven members positive.

They made large number of contacts within the community from April 12 to Sunday.

Of the cases announced yesterday, first up is a soldier, who is a roommate of case 73  or soldier who was announced positive last Sunday.  He had tested negative in the first instance and does not pose threat as he was quarantined since April 18th.

The next four cases are all contacts of the hotel maid from Nadi, who had tested positive after having contracted the virus from the first solider or case 73, during an interaction.

Doctor Fong says the containment areas remain and changes will be made as and when required. However, he has urged all those who attended service at the Nasareci Church in Nadi, on April 18th  and they need to contact health authorities.

Also, any person who traveled from Viti Levu to any outer island or Vanua Levu from April 19th, needs to contact health teams, as Doctor Fong says these two areas require some attention to pick up more contacts of existing contacts.

He says they are happy to now know about a beginning point and this will assist the health teams to do tracing and the Makoi family should not be blamed as they contracted the diseases through no fault of theirs.

The latest cases come almost a week after the maid from Nadi tested positive after having contracted the virus from a soldier, during an interaction. The army officer had got the virus, after handling the baggage of a couple who had arrived from India with the virus.

Following that we had a woman from Cunningham, who had attended the ‘Super Spreader’ funeral in Tavakubu, Lautoka, her 14-year-old daughter and toddler contracted the virus as well.

The maid’s daughter and a close contact along with another couple who attended the funeral, have also tested positive, with the woman from Makoi.

Doctor Fong has also confirmed as of today, Police will be tougher with people who go through checkpoints, as there was some leniency yesterday. He says more gazette notices were signed yesterday to stop all those who continue to break the rules.

Police checkpoints || Fijians around Suva || Suva Market today||

The Suva bus stand today