LAUTOKA HOSPITAL WILL REMAIN IN OPERATION

Health officials say they have back up plans in Sigatoka and Rakiraki, should the need to shut down Lautoka Hospital arise.

This comes as two doctors who had tested positive for COVID-19, worked at the hospital, and to date there is no word on how they contracted the virus.

Health officials says the two doctors worked closely together, so it’s quite possible one passed the virus to the other.

There are already 98 contacts identified and most are their colleagues who work at the hospital, including doctors and nurses and some patients.

Health Permanent Secretary, Doctor James Fong, says with the effort being put in to trace and contain the virus at Lautoka Hospital, they will not have to make the severe call of shutting it down, but should it happen, they are prepared.

He says neither doctor has been directly linked to other existing cases of COVID-19, but they are not ruling anything out and as a result we are also testing all the staff of the COVID-19 isolation ward.

“Yes if we have to, it will be done. We do have our contingency measures in place, we have a number of other facilities that we can pull up into becoming to provide the services that we have at Lautoka Hospital. We have in the past deployed teams to Sigatoka, Sigatoka and Rakiraki, have both served as divisional hospitals in the past. So it is within our means to be able to provide back up, if we have to close Lautoka Hospital.”

In the meantime, Health Ministry’s Chief Medical Advisor, Dr Jemesa Tudravu, says Fijians should not fear Lautoka Hospital.

“Lautoka Hospital remains operational. They continue to deliver all emergency services that they have been delivering prior to the incident. The new medical team, the replacement medical team is on board and they are delivering the services as we speak. So again we are encouraging all the members of the public in Lautoka and in the Western division not to worry if they have sickness, they have diseases, they need to go the hospital, Lautoka Hospital is the place to be seen and treated.”

Fiji currently has 44 active cases of COVID-19.