COVID-19

New COVID-19 case confirmed in Ba, 18 in total now

April 21, 2020 7:30 am

Fiji has 18 confirmed cases of the deadly COVID-19, with the latest patient being a 51-year-old woman from Ba.

The woman was amongst those tested from Friday until Sunday.

Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama says the woman and her contacts are now in isolation and she is in stable condition.

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“One test returned what we call a soft positive result, meaning we couldn’t say with certainty whether this sample was positive for COVID-19. After further testing and consultations with our reference lab in Melbourne, they found that these results indicate that these samples came from someone in the final stage of recovery from coronavirus.”

The woman has a travel history and followed the self-isolation regulations in place.

“The patient returned from the United States on the 22nd of March and after completing 14 days of home quarantine she was cleared. Only later did she develop COVID like symptoms, she was then tested giving us the soft positive result. The results of her test make it likely that this person has been carrying COVID-19 for weeks. Luckily our contact tracing which began when she was first tested on the 18th of April, identifies as a low-risk transmitter.”

Bainimarama says they will not be locking down Ba Town as yet, however, health mobile teams will be conducting a large-scale screening of the entire province.

He says as with Lautoka and Suva, public cooperation is vital to this effort and if this is not seen in terms of sufficient numbers from these screenings, Ba will risk a total lockdown.

COVID-19 Awareness

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Posted by FBC News on Tuesday, March 31, 2020

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