COVID-19 cases

Permanent Secretary for Health Doctor James Fong confirmed 11 new cases of COVID-19 last night.

Ten of the new cases are from one household in Kinoya about 8km out of Suva city are linked to the Extra Supermarket cluster.

Dr Fong said the eleventh case is a work contact of case 206 from the Samabula cluster.

Ten other cases were announced after midday yesterday.

12 patients have recovered, which means there are now 108 active cases in isolation.

Experts warn that the real number of fatalities might be much higher as many deaths are not officially recorded.

India has recorded 26 million cases - second only to the US - and is now the epicentre of the global pandemic.

The country is also only the third in the world to record more than 300,000 deaths - behind the US and Brazil.

It took less than a month to record its last 100,000 deaths.

There are now 99 active cases in the country.

The first two cases are from Nadawa, Nasinu and 7-miles in Nasinu.

They are primary contacts of case 211 from Tacirua, who tested positive on Sunday.

The third case is from Samabula and is also a primary contact of an earlier case.

Health Permanent Secretary, Doctor James Fong says that there was one positive test result in the first batch of 7000 samples sent to Australia but the patient has now recovered.

In its Sunday afternoon update released electronically to the media, the Ministry of Health has asked journalists to reiterate the proper use of its contact tracing app.

Of the new cases, 10 are from two related families in Waila just outside of Nausori town, adjacent to Suva.

Another four cases are from a household in Tacirua outside the capital Suva and two cases are from a household in Muanikoso, on the outskirts of nearby Nasinu Town.

Health head Dr James Fong said early investigations do not yet link new cases with previous cases.

The five cases were confirmed at midday Friday and are from the same Muanikoso household in Suva's Nasinu area.

One of the houshold members works at the Extra Supermarket, the centre of a cluster that was the focus of contact tracing last week.

Health Permanent Secretary James Fong says the family strictly adhered to quarantine measures and so there are no escalated measures planned for the neighbourhood.

The cases were identified on Monday and the ship has been quarantined for at least 14 days.

One of the fishermen who tested positive is i-Kiribati and the other a foreigner.

The i-Kiribati fisherman was returning home after completing a yearlong contract aboard a Taiwanese purse seiner, his last port-of-call before travelling to Kiribati was Papua New Guinea a month ago.

Before reaching Tarawa he transferred from the purse seiner to a carrier vessel or mothership, belonging to the same company, which is the vessel that is now under quarantine off of Tarawa.

The cases, all from Nausori, north of the capital Suva are believed to have been infected via a case from Makoi.

Makoi has been the site of multiple infections since the second wave of the pandemic began in the country last month.

With the Fiji Centre for Disease Control now operational following several days of closure when some of its staff tested positive, testing is expected to churn out more positive cases.

Health Secretary Dr James Fong said a high volume of swab results from primary and secondary contacts of existing cases would be processed.

A 24-hour curfew will come into effect for Suva and Nausori from 11pm Friday to 4am Tuesday.

Fiji's FBC news reports three of the new cases are co-workers of a staff member of Extra Supermarket, who had tested positive yesterday.

The supermarket has been closed for decontamination purposes while the ministry awaits the test results from the remaining staff and management.

Health Secretary Dr James Fong announced last night that the latest cases are all linked to case number 136, the man from Saru, Lautoka, who showed Covid-like symptoms when he visited the Natabua Health centre.

Fong said the man was one of seven people who had tested positive to the virus last Friday.

"One of the new cases is his wife, another is his daughter, and the third was a primary contact of his wife," he said.

"All three have been in isolation since Saturday.

"The contact tracers are locating and quarantining their close contacts.

These include two nurses - one at Lautoka Hospital where more than 400 staff have been in quarantine since Wednesday.

The hospital has been isolated after a male patient contracted Covid-19 and died last evening.

He has become Fiji's first community case to die of the virus and health authorities have concluded that he had caught Covid-19 in the community, and not in the hospital.