Three individuals died less than two weeks after receiving their second jab of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Permanent Secretary for Health Doctor James Fong clarified that an individual need to at least wait two weeks after the second dose to be considered fully vaccinated.

These three were among the 13 COVID deaths reported by the Ministry of Health yesterday.

Permanent Secretary for Health, Doctor James Fong says of the three individuals, two were infected with the virus before they received their second jab.

“We know from the timeline of when their symptoms first developed that two of these individuals were infected with the virus before they got the second dose of the vaccine. We must understand that there is a difference between cure and prevention. The vaccine is not a cure for COVID-19, which means it will not help if you get vaccinated when you are already infected and sick with the virus.”

Dr Fong says the third patient got sick with COVID-19 and died within two weeks of the second dose.

“No one in Fiji has died from COVID-19 after they have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. “

He adds that Fiji also reported 568 new COVID-19 infections in the 24 hour period ending 8am today of which 262 cases were recorded in the Western Division and 306 in the Central Division.

Dr Fong says despite the low numbers being reported recently, Fijians should not misinterpret it as a true reduction of COVID-19 cases in these two divisions.

“We can anticipate that these shifts have an impact on our daily reported case numbers and this is why it is critical that we use various data to inform our understanding of the current situation in these divisions. “

The Permanent Secretary says our circumstance is reflective of the situation many countries are currently responding to globally.

“Over the past few weeks, we have also seen a spike in dangerous misinformation and individuals posing as experts providing incorrect facts about COVID-19. We are concerned that people who are inclined to resist the vaccine will cling to that misinformation or even misconstrue facts that are reported correctly, threatening the efforts of our teams trying to provide the best protection possible for our communities. “

Dr Fong says evidence has shown that Fiji is on the right track with responding to this new strain.

The Ministry also reported 664 new recoveries, which means that there are now 24,299 active cases.

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