Health Minister, Dr. Ifereimi Waqainabete says they want to ensure there are health services available to the surrounding townships and communities outside Lautoka.

The Ministry of Health is putting in measures to supplement access to medical care due to Lautoka Hospital being in the restricted zone.

Border restrictions on access into Lautoka came into effect on Thursday last week after the first positive case of COVID-19.

Health Minister, Dr. Ifereimi Waqainabete says they want to ensure there are health services available to the surrounding townships and communities outside Lautoka.

“CWM teams of Specialists have been moving up and down the Sigatoka to Nadi corridor, also the Rakiraki to Ba corridor for the last few days. They’ve been flying operations teams that have been able to do an operation successfully in Tavua and they’re looking at setting up a satellite small hospital in Rakiraki and also in Sigatoka.”

Fiji currently has two confirmed coronavirus cases, the first patient has been isolated at Lautoka Hospital with the second isolated at Nadi Hospital.

Meanwhile, the Health Minister is urging Fijians to get all of their information on coronavirus cases from official government websites, the WHO and mainstream media.

Dr. Waqainabete says rumours do nothing but cause unnecessary panic and distract health officials from carrying out their life saving work.

Click here for more on COVID-19

Click Here for Coronavirus COVID-19 Global Cases by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University (JHU).