The Ministry of Health and Medical Services has announced 3 new border quarantine cases of COVID19.

It says the first two border quarantine cases are a 69-year-old female and a 39-year-old female who traveled to Fiji from California, arriving on flight FJ1813 from Los Angeles on March 1st.

The Health Ministry says both currently have no symptoms and one of the individuals had returned a weak positive result and is considered a historical case.

It says both have been transferred to the isolation ward at Lautoka hospital according to the standard protocol for positive cases.

The third border quarantine case is a 44-year-old male who arrived in Fiji on a yacht on March 6, the last port of call was Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.

The Ministry of Health says he returned a weak positive test result upon routine testing while undergoing the standard 14-day quarantine on board the vessel in the quarantine mooring, in accordance with the Blue Lanes initiative.

It says a weak positive result indicates that there was little viral material in the sample, which also may not be viable.

The Ministry also highlights that it is known that non-infectious fragments of the virus can remain detectable, and cause a positive test result long after the infection has passed, and even after previous negative test results; the person also has no symptoms and tested negative during pre-departure testing in Port Moresby.

It adds that it is unlikely that this person is currently infectious and therefore, this is considered a historical case of COVID-19.

However, the Health Ministry says the man has been transferred to the isolation ward at Lautoka hospital, and the management of this case will follow their standard protocol for positive cases.

It also confirms that following the protocols of the Blue Lanes initiative, the Fiji Navy tracked the yacht this individual arrived on as soon as it entered Fijian waters.

The yacht did not stop at any other island in Fiji before arriving at the quarantine mooring at Denarau.

The health Ministry says this is the first positive case on a yacht arriving through the Blue Lanes initiative.

107 yachts have arrived in Fiji via the Blue Lanes since the initiative started last year.

All onboard this yacht will complete 14 days quarantine, and return at least 2 negative test results before they will be released to enter Fiji.

Since Fiji’s first case was reported on March 19, 2020, Fiji has now had 66 cases, with 7 active cases currently admitted at the Lautoka hospital isolation ward, there have been 57 recoveries and 2 deaths.

The last 48 cases have been international travel-associated cases detected in border quarantine.

It has been 324 days since the last case was detected outside border quarantine on April 18, 2020.

A total of 32,164 laboratory tests have been conducted, with a daily average of 239 tests per day over the last 7 days, and a weekly average of 1476 tests per week over the last 2 weeks.