COVID-19

Woman was moved to ICU before death

May 14, 2021 5:35 am

The woman from the recent Makoi cluster who tested positive earlier this week has died.

Permanent Secretary for Health, Dr James Fong says she was shifted into intensive care after her condition began deteriorating.

Dr Fong says this is the second reported death from COVID-19 due to the current outbreak and many more Fijian lives could add to the sobering figure.

Article continues after advertisement

“It serves as yet another painful reminder of the severity of the threat that we face. We are dealing with a virus that has claimed more than 3.7 million lives around the world.”

Dr Fong says the war against the virus can be won and thousands of lives can be saved.

Adding to his statement Dr Fong announced four new cases of COVID-19 yesterday.

The first case is from Makoi who presented to Oceania Hospital with COVID-19 symptoms.

The Permanent Secretary says according to the early investigations this case has no known links to other cases.

“The Oceania Hospital outpatients department was temporarily closed yesterday for contact tracing and decontamination. Anyone who potentially had contact with this case at the hospital has been quarantined.”

He adds the next case is also from Makoi and is an administrative staff member of Fiji Centre for Disease Control.

Dr Fong says two other staff of the CDC have also tested positive

“According to Fiji CDC protocol he was tested after returning this week from annual leave. The next two cases are administrative staff at the Fiji CDC who had tested negative during routine testing earlier this week but tested positive as part of contact tracing for this new case.”

The three staff who have tested positive for the virus have been transferred to isolation facilities.