The Colonial War Memorial Hospital in Suva

The Ministry of Health is working towards mitigating the impacts of the COVID-19.

Permanent Secretary for Health, Doctor James Fong, says this is one reason why the Ministry was worried when the Colonial War Memorial Hospital in Suva was compromised due to the pandemic.

Dr Fong says Fiji Emergency Medical Assistance Team is a contingency plan which has given the Ministry the ability to mitigate the adverse effects of the virus.

“You can see the contingency on the ground now, we have got FEMAT. We have the ability now to turn the entire CWM hospital into an actual COVID hospital or a significant portion of CWM into a COVID hospital which will help us mitigate adverse impacts of COVID-19, which is a severe disease, hospitalization, and death.”

The Ministry is in talks with some of the development partners about further options for Fiji to develop contingency plans.

Dr Fong says more details will be released once the plans are finalized.