Fijis second outbreak of Covid-19 could easily turn into a situation like that seen in Papua New Guinea, where there have been 11,630 cases of the virus, a Pacific health expert says.
Fiji’s main centres in Suva and Nausori will go into a 77-hour lockdown from Friday, as health officials try to contain the spread of the virus.
The rest of Viti Levu, the main island, will have a 6pm-4am curfew imposed from Saturday.
Covid-19 screening and testing is underway in Fiji.
As of Wednesday, Fiji had reported 89 cases and one death since its second outbreak began on April 17.
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Of those cases, 45 are within the Suva-Nausori corridor, with the source of clusters in Nausori, Raiwaqa, Flagstaff and Makoi under investigation.
Dr Collin Tukuitonga is an associate professor of public health at the University of Auckland.
According to Fiji’s health officials, a supermarket and market, a health centre and settlements in Nausori are recent places of interest. More cases are expected as contact tracing efforts continue.
Dr Collin Tukuitonga, a Pacific health expert heavily involved in New Zealands Covid-19 response, said Fijis second wave, which has seen wide transmission of the highly contagious Indian variant in the community, is concerning.
He praised the restriction and containment measures taken by the countrys Ministry of Health, which are similar to New Zealands response of mass testing and contact tracing, but said the outbreak could get out of hand.
He said unknown sources of transmission in the community are a huge concern.
Fiji’s health permanent secretary, Dr James Fong, says his team is already stretched thin with efforts to contain the virus.
Their health ministry is doing the same measures any confident authority can do to try and contain this virus, but they are falling into a fragile situation which can easily get away from them, like how we are seeing in Papua New Guinea.
As of May 5, Papua New Guinea has recorded 11,630 cases of the virus and 121 deaths. There have been 223 new cases in the past two months from 14 provinces.
Its government said there have been challenges and delays in reporting of cases and deaths, as well as testing.
The virus in Fiji is widespread on the main island, with a lockdown of a major hospital in Lautoka and several small health centres.
General practitioners in the private sector have been called up to assist the public with health emergencies in the meantime, and several hotels and motels in the capital Suva are being used as quarantine centres for primary contacts of new cases.
Tukuitonga said with the lockdown, restrictions and social distancing, Fiji can get on top of the spread, but questioned the curfew at night.
There is hardly any movement at night, it would have been better to restrict movement during the day when there is movement.
Fijis second outbreak of the virus began on April 17 after a soldier contracted the virus from two travellers at a managed quarantine facility.
More cases emerged after a group of soldiers breached protocols at an isolation facility, when they partied after returning from peacekeeping duties.
Fijis health permanent secretary Dr James Fong, in his daily update on Wednesday, said his team is stretched thin.
The series of new clusters requires large-scale contact tracing to the magnitude of several hundred primary and secondary contacts, with the supermarket cluster of particular concern, he said.
We are dealing with a Covid variant the World Health Organisation has designated as potentially more contagious, and certainly less predictable, Fong said.