Beqa Island

The Ministry of Health is sending a team of 20 healthcare and allied workers to Yanuca and Beqa Island this morning.

For the next three days, the team is planned to conduct mass swabbing of the 10 villages, conduct assessments of individuals considered high risk and/or vulnerable and conduct awareness of COVID-19 in these communities.

Permanent Secretary for Health, Doctor James Fong says they are thankful to the village elders and leaders who have helped in their quest to contain and/or mitigate the outbreak in the affected maritime islands.

However, he says they repeat their call to the maritime islanders to avoid engaging in unauthorized travel to and from Viti Levu.

Doctor Fong says their current protocols to regulate domestic movements have been working in removing the risk of viral leakage into their communities.

As such he adds they appeal for adherence to the protocols in place.

For those islands yet to be affected, the Ministry is repeating its call to all village leaders and elders to support their current efforts to protect the maritime islands.

Doctor Fong says this can be done by immediately reporting any suspicious movements into their community and having in place quarantine/isolation measures to deal with all travelers into their respective communities.

The Ministry also appeals for community support for vaccination.

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