Minister Dr Ifereimi Waqainabete. [Source: Fijian Government]

The Health Ministry is reminding Fijians to continue applying pre-advised measures to successfully prevent and control COVID-19 transmission despite the roll-out of the vaccination campaign today

This includes physical distancing where possible, managing proper ventilation, and maintaining good hand hygiene, alongside robust programmes to test, trace, isolate and treat to keep communities safe.

The Ministry today launched the COVID-19 vaccination campaign with the target to fully vaccinate 6,000 front-line workers.

These include health care workers, members of the disciplined forces, and border control, workers.

Health Minister Dr Ifereimi Waqainabete says they had a game plan which ensured that their health staff are ready.

“The game plan was to make sure that after TC Yasa and Ana that we breach the community as much as possible. We mobilize our assets, mobilize our staff from the three main hospitals to go out in the community because we wanted to be ready for this. Now we have seen that our LTDDs have begun to drop and as they begin to drop we start with our vaccination campaign.”

The first batch of 12,000 Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines, procured through the COVAX facility, a partnership between CEPI, GAVI, UNICEF and WHO, will provide two doses each of vaccination for the target group.

Additional vaccines sent through COVAX will arrive in staggered shipments in the weeks to come.

Dr Waqainabete says Fiji is fortunate to receive the initial supply of the vaccines and this will boost confidence among our neighbours that Fiji is a safe tourist destination.