Head of Health Protection, Doctor Aalisha Sahukhan

The Ministry of Health says they are aware of concerns about the number of frontline healthcare workers testing positive for COVID-19.

However, Head of Health Protection Doctor Aalisha Sahukhan says these people play a critical role in the war against the virus.

Dr Sahukhan says frontline healthcare workers cannot stay home because of the role they play.

“If our frontline workers stayed home, there would be no response to this outbreak. And there would be nobody left to care for sick patients whether they have COVID or not. They protect themselves as best as they can.”

Dr Sahukhan says some of the staff from the Incident Management Team have been impacted by the virus recently.

“This concern is understandable and I know what you’re thinking. How are they getting infected? Aren’t they following the advice that they are giving us? First of all, COVID-19 is a highly transmissible and contagious virus. It spreads very easily in crowded spaces.”

The Head of Health Protection says the frontline healthcare workers are swabbed twice a week because of the nature of the work they do.

She says most of them haven’t seen their families for weeks as they push on with their groundwork in testing and swabbing Fijians.