Health Minister Dr Ifereimi Waqainabete

Health Minister Dr. Ifereimi Waqainabete has repeated the need for Fijians to conform to the behavioral changes of living in the new normal.

He says the decision to lift restrictions might be tough, even though Fiji hasn’t recorded any new COVID-19 cases in the past eight weeks.

The Health Minister highlighted the risk of new cases is high if Fijians are allowed to go back to their usual way of life.

“Work continues in terms of the discussion with stakeholders our role as the Ministry of Health is to provide the technical advice and the Honorable Prime Minister will make those announcements. I’m satisfied that our advice has been heard in an effort to protect the health of our nation”.

Meanwhile, the New Zealand government today handed over an additional 40 lifesaving Airvos machines worth of $1.5m to the Health Ministry.

New Zealand High Commissioner to Fiji Jonathan Curr says the machines will guarantee better preparedness on Fiji’s health system.

“We know from New Zealand’s experience just this week where we’ve had 3 new COVID-19 positive patients that Fiji with 80 of these devices now in place around the country is well prepared for any eventuality when we deal with COVID-19 in future”.

These machines are in addition to the 40 donated in April and will be distributed to divisional hospitals to assist in keeping Fijians healthy.