Minister for Health Dr Ifereimi Waqainabete says more than 100,000 people have been vaccinated against measles.

This comes as there are now ten confirmed cases of measles.

The latest confirmed case is a 25-year-old pregnant woman from Samabula, Suva.

Dr Waqainabete says the Ministry continues to have suspected cases from areas that have been cleared after necessary tests.

“Everyday there are people who turn up to hospitals and health centres with fever or maybe a slight rash. So those are suspected cases, we then put them aside to do blood tests. When the blood tests come in and it’s clear then we release them. We’ve had some suspected cases that we’ve cleared and at the moment we just have those 10 confirmed cases.”

The Health Ministry has also confirmed the two-year-old confirmed case from Koronivia has been discharged from the CWM Hospital.

It also highlighted that an 11-year-old student of the Fiji School for the Blind is currently a suspected case and is isolated awaiting test results.

The Ministry says students and staff at the school were vaccinated and quarantined on Thursday before being cleared by the Suva outbreak response team.

The Ministry says the remaining measles vaccine stock will be prioritized to those who are at the greatest risk and is not available for the public until additional stocks arrive in the coming days.

Meanwhile the Government of Samoa officially declared a state of emergency 4-weeks after a measles outbreak which has claimed 15 lives.

According to UNICEF, Samoan health officials have confirmed 14 children and 1 adult fatality related to this measles virus outbreak.

All Samoan schools have been temporarily closed and children under 17 years old have been advised by the Government not to attend public gatherings to contain the spread of this vaccine-preventable disease.

And measles has killed almost 5,000 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo so far this year.

Nearly a quarter of a million people have been infected in the African nation in 2019, with cases in every corner of the country.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) says it is the world’s largest and fastest-moving epidemic.

Measles is a highly contagious virus, measles is a disease that spreads from person to person by breathing, coughing, or sneezing.