7,888 people in Suva and Nausori have been placed under quarantine as primary and secondary contacts of COVID cases.

Permanent Secretary for Health Doctor James Fong says this is the largest number of active contacts they have ever identified.

Doctor Fong adds teams for the past four days have combed through Suva and Nausori to trace and test contacts of existing cases.

“As a reminder for everyone, these “contacts” are people who had interactions with individuals who have tested positive for the virus and may have passed it to them. It was important that we find these people so we could test them and ensure they do not pose a wider risk of transmission to our communities.”

Doctor Fong says due to the careFIJI app the Ministry found many of the contacts quickly and some have required more in-depth investigations to find.

“We don’t measure success solely by the number of contacts in quarantine, but these are important markers of progress. They represent Fijians at risk of infection. Identifying them and isolating them ensures that chains of transmission were broken before they could extend, it means clusters were thwarted before they exploded beyond our control.”

The Permanent Secretary has acknowledged the public’s cooperation and support through the four days of the lockdown.