Coronavirus

As his condition deteriorated, the patient was put on a ventilator. He was administered steroids, a life-saving treatment for severe and critically ill Covid-19 patients. But experts say the drug also reduces immunity and pushes up blood sugar levels in patients.

After a prolonged stay in the ICU, the patient had recovered and was ready to go home when doctors found he was infected with a deadly, drug-resistant fungus.

After the discovery of the new cases, parts of the Colonial War Memorial Hospital in Suva and the Nadi Hospital are now on lockdown.

Permanent Secretary for Health, Doctor James Fong, said five cases are from the Navosai Narere cluster outside Suva , one from Waila in Nausori, one from Nawaka in Nadi and two are from the CWM hospital.

A total of nine local cases were recorded on Monday, which included six flagged by the government at its daily Covid-19 press conference yesterday.

The state recorded 42,699 test results and 20,484 vaccinations at state-run centres.

There are now 329 exposure sites, with the South Melbourne ALDI, the Woolworths at Heidelberg and a number of sites in Brimbank Shopping Centre added last night as Tier 1 sites.

Federal Aged Care Services Minister Richard Colbeck said he was comfortable with the pace of the vaccine roll out in aged care.

The death toll now stands at 180,764.

Peru has been among the hardest hit Latin America countries during the Covid-19 pandemic, with its hospitals overcrowded with patients and demand for oxygen outstripping availability. Experts had long warned that the true death toll was being undercounted in official statistics.

The government said it would now update its death count, which stood at 69,342 yesterday, in part because of a lack of testing that made it difficult to confirm whether a person had died due to the virus or some other cause.

From now on the WHO will use Greek letters to refer to variants first detected in countries like the UK, South Africa and India.

The UK variant for instance is labelled as Alpha, the South African Beta, and the Indian as Delta.

The WHO said this was to simplify discussions but also to help remove some stigma from the names.

Earlier this month the Indian government criticised the naming of variant B.1.617.2 - first detected in the country last October - as the "Indian variant", though the WHO had never officially labelled it as such.

Permanent Secretary for Health, Doctor James Fong confirmed 23 new cases were reported yesterday morning and another 9 were reported last night.

The 9 new cases are all linked to existing clusters.

Another 4 cases are from Nawaka in Nadi while 5 are from Muanikoso in Nasinu.

There are now 267 active cases with 252 of these cases from the Lami-Suva-Nausori containment zone, and 15 cases from Nadi.

2 of the active cases in Suva are considered to be severe cases and are admitted in the ICU in hospital.

The person had also tested negative three times, but tested positive on Day 21 of quarantine, the government said.

But it said this case has a low risk of infecting others.

Health official Gaafar J. Uherbelau said the patient is isolated and contact tracing underway.

He said those who had been in contact with the patient, including travel companions, had been placed in quarantine.

So far close contacts who had been tested have returned negative results, Uherbelau said.

Additional contact tracing will continue, he said.

Fiji has had 360 cases in total since the first case was reported in March 2020, with 161 recoveries and four deaths.

Ministry of Health Permanent Secretary Dr James Fong said two patients were in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Colonial War Memorial Hospital in Suva.

"Today has not been an easy day, nor do I expect that the days ahead will get any better. Many of you have questions. I hope to answer some now and I am assured that a press conference will be organised soon to answer more questions," Dr Fong said.

Victoria has recorded five new locally acquired cases of coronavirus as the state enters its second day of a snap lockdown.

The five new cases were detected from 56,624 test results processed on Friday, an apparent record for the state.

The outbreak linked to Melbourne's northern suburbs had grown to 30 cases yesterday. Further information about whether the five new cases are linked to the cluster is expected later today.

There are now 45 active cases of COVID-19 in the state, which includes another two recorded in hotel quarantine.

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said that although infection were falling they remained high, and that some hospitals were still under strain

Restriction will be in place until 19 June, five weeks before the postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympics are due to start.

Organisers said they would wait until the emergency ends on 20 June to decide whether to allow local fans to attend.

Overseas fans have already been barred.