The Permanent Secretary for Health has stressed that widespread vaccinations among the public are absolutely critical.

Dr James Fong says it is important in controlling the COVID-19 virus, ending this pandemic and keeping Fijians safe.

He highlighted that no one in Fiji is fully vaccinated.

“You need two doses of these vaccines to be fully vaccinated, and then need to wait an additional two weeks for its full response within your immune system to take effect. Only once every Fijian — who is eligible — achieves that level of immunity, will Fiji truly be safe from this deadly virus”.

Dr Fong adds they expect 64,800 of the 100,800 doses pledged by COVAX to arrive by June.

New Zealand has pledged half a million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to Fiji and we’ve received 100,000 doses from India.

Dr Fong says they expect to receive the first shipment of 10,000 doses from Australia as early as next week, with other shipments arriving monthly.

“We are grateful for the commitments we have received for vaccines so far, but they are not enough, nor are they coming soon enough, and we are working with our international partners on new commitments. Our current commitments can cover 484,000 Fijians, and we need to cover 650,000. With an outbreak already upon us — the urgency of achieving widespread immunity grows daily.”

Dr Fong stressed that while it is not easy to give up the normal activities of daily life and remain at home, if everyone makes and effort, we can stop this virus once again and return to those normalcy.