Fiji

The Ministry of Health and Medical Services said children in this age bracket were being vaccinated first as these children were mostly in secondary school and some of them are nearing the end of their secondary education.

The ministry's advisory said that children will need to receive two doses of the Moderna vaccine which is administered at a dose interval of 28 days.

Parents and guardians will be asked to sign a consent form for children receiving this vaccine.

The Moderna vaccine will be used in the rollout that begins on Monday.

Health Secretary James Fong said the Moderna vaccine would be rolled out by school clusters across the country.

Dr Fong said unlike the workforce, vaccination for children would only be conducted with the consent of parents or guardians.

Parents and guardians will need to sign a consent form for their children to receive the vaccine, he said.

He said parents could register their child online through the Vaccine Registry Portal which is available from this weekend.

The Ministry of Health’s Permanent Secretary, Doctor James Fong said 69 cases are from the Western Division, 68 cases from the Central and nine cases from the Eastern Division.

There was one lone COVID-19 death reported.

A 93-year-old unvaccinated man from Suva died at home.

Dr Fong said there have been eight more deaths of positive patients classified as non-COVID deaths.

There have been 217 new recoveries since the last update and there are currently 12,870 active cases in the country.

Fiji Airports reported the Antonov-124 aircraft stopped over for refueling at Nadi while flying from Hawaii to Australia.

The Antonov-124 is a large, strategic airlift, four-engined aircraft that was designed in the 1980s in the Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union (USSR).

There are currently 26 civilian models in operation.

Westpac announced last year it was selling its majority shareholdings in Westpac Fiji and Westpac Bank PNG Ltd for up to $AU420 million dollars.

Its preferred buyer was Kina Securities but the PNG Consumer and Competition Commission, the ICCC, has denied authorisation for the sale to Kina Securities.

Westpac has today announced that it will continue to operate the Pacific businesses while it reviews the impact of the decision on Kina Securities.

The Ministry of Health’s Permanent Secretary, Doctor James Fong said the child was admitted at the CWM Hospital for five days before he succumbed to illness.

He was initially presented to a health centre in mild respiratory distress on 1 September.

"He was medically assessed and stabilised by the attending medical officer and then transferred to the Colonial War Memorial Hospital in Suva for specialist care on the same day," Dr Fong said.

The infant was tested for COVID-19 as per protocol upon admission and he returned a positive result.

The study conducted by NGO, Dialogue Fiji from June 25 to July 10 this year found that 53.9 percent of Fijians surveyed believed the Covid-19 vaccine was "very safe".

The survey, 'Determinants of Covid-19 Vaccines Hesitancy in Fiji', stated that public confidence in the effectiveness of the vaccines to prevent infection may be affected by perceived risks associated with vaccination.

"Of the 1047 respondents, only 53.9 percent reported the vaccine was 'very safe', while 19.4 percent reported the vaccines to be 'little safe' to 'not safe at all'," Dialogue Fiji stated.

The Government also confirmed 250 new cases for the 24 hours to 8am yesterday.

Thirteen of the new cases are on the outer island of Kadavu and three patients are pregnant women.

Permanent Secretary of Health Dr James Fong said, "This means there are now 270 active cases of Covid-19 in Kadavu," he said. "All these individuals have been isolated."

Fiji now has 16,267 active cases. There were 1102 recoveries.

The death toll is at 505, which 503 of these are from the latest outbreak that began in April, 2021.

The Ministry of Health announced the move in June amid a daily-record of cases, taking the total number of infections since April to over 19,000.

Health experts in and around Fiji have warned against the government's plan to isolate COVID patients at home amid the escalating cases in the country.

There are 19,151 active cases in isolation with 8352 of them in the Central Division, 10,562 in the West, five in the North (Nabouwalu and Macuata), and 232 cases are in the Eastern Division (Kadavu).

The Government also confirmed 290 new cases for the 24 hours to 8am yesterday.

That compares with 505 cases and seven deaths in the previous 24-hour period.

Fiji now has 17,124 active cases. There were 2306 recoveries.

The death toll is at 504, which 502 of these are from the latest outbreak that began in April, 2021.

Health Secretary Dr James Fong said of the latest cases, 128 are from the Western Division, 137 from the Central Division and 25 cases are from the Eastern Division.

He said there are 25 new cases on Kadavu in the East.