Minister for Health, Doctor Ifereimi Waqainabete

The Ministry of Health says the two Fijian nationals, who were tested for coronavirus, have been cleared.

The two who arrived in the country last week from China had shown mild symptoms and were quarantined in Nadi.

Minister for Health, Doctor Ifereimi Waqainabete says with two having been cleared, Fiji does not have any cases of the deadly disease.

“The results for the two Fiji nationals that have been in isolation in Nadi are negative. Those are the results that we have, which has come back from Australia. We also had a foreign national who travelled from mainland China about 9 or 10 days ago that’s before the restriction was placed and who has been in Fiji. He was unwell yesterday. We went and our team of health professionals were asked to bring the case in for isolation so that’s the only case at the moment.”

Dr. Waqainabete adds that the foreign national with a fever was placed under isolation at Nadi Hospital.

Lab samples he says for confirmatory testing for the Coronavirus have being sent to the WHO Collaborating Centre reference laboratory in Melbourne Australia.

The Minister stressing that their response teams are also managing close contacts of the patient and that they will provide an update to the public on the results of the lab test once they are available.

The Health Minister further adds that as the symptoms of Coronavirus are very similar to many other respiratory illnesses (including colds and influenza) it is expected that with time the Ministry will investigate more persons with relevant travel history and symptoms related to it.

This, Dr. Waqainabete says should not alarm the public, as this is an indication of the level of alert Fiji is maintaining for this globally spreading disease.

Meanwhile he highlights that Fiji has implemented travel restrictions for those travelling from China in a bid to keep the virus out of the country.