Yaqeta in Yasawa [Source: Trip Advisor]

Villagers of Yaqeta in Yasawa are now on high alert after a man who drowned last week Thursday tested positive for COVID-19.

The victim who is a 50-year-old man from the village drowned was taken to the Lautoka Hospital following the incident for post-mortem and swabbing.

Turaga ni Koro Apisai Raqele says the swab result of the deceased returned positive.

Raqele says a sudden twist of a full-speed fiberglass boat forced the 50-year-old to jump overboard, and efforts to resuscitate him proved futile.

The incident has ignited a shocking revelation for the Yaqeta villagers.

“We were shocked when we received the news last week. He is well but what I hear, he has been experiencing respiratory distress a few days before the incident. His body was transported back to the village last Saturday. He was taken from the landing site straight to the burial ground without any protocols or rituals. This was done under the careful watch of police officers.”

Raqele says the risk of community transmission is there, however, they haven’t imposed any strict lockdown measures in the village.

“At the moment, we haven’t imposed any lockdown protocols. We are expecting a team of health officials to visit our village over the next few days. We will take our queue from there.”

Permanent Secretary for Health, Doctor James Fong says the death of the suspected case has alerted the Nacula Health Centre on the possible presence of COVID-19 in their medical area.

“We found one case in Yasawa – we got Naviti, we got Malolo. So, we expecting there is a lot of movement within Yasawa amongst themselves. So we do expect , there will be positive cases.”

A team from the Ministry of Health is working with the Mata ni Tikina and villagers to assess and conduct contact tracing work in the village.

Dr Fong says no other case has been identified on the island to date.

Click here for the interactive GIS Dashboard