The Health Ministry believes that as long as a nation welcomes back its own citizens during this COVID-19 pandemic, it cannot reliably claim itself free of COVID-19.

Acting Permanent Secretary Dr James Fong says the latest ‘border quarantine case’ is the reason why Fiji cannot be labeled as COVID-19 free.

Dr Fong says we cannot expect this to be Fiji’s last border quarantine case.

Let this latest case go to show that while Fiji maybe free from community based transmission, this pandemic is still raging beyond our borders.

 Dr Fong adds that we’ve built an impregnable wall of strong border controls, strict quarantine surveillance and capable healthcare monitoring between border quarantine cases and Fijian communities.

Fiji announced its 19^th active COVID-19 case yesterday, 80 days after all active cases were cleared.

A 66-year-old man who returned from India on the 4th of this month tested positive on Sunday.

He was returning from a medical procedure in India with his son and was travelling with 107 other passengers.

The man was transported to the Nadi Hospital for isolation.

Meanwhile, his son’s test result will be released today.