The Fiji Centre for Disease Control will be back and active again by this afternoon.
Health Ministry permanent secretary Dr James Fong gave this assurance last night after he announced one more case of COVID-19 was recorded in Lakena, Nausori.
He made the comment in response to queries from the media after three FCDC staff tested positive for the virus on Thursday resulting in the lab being temporarily shut down for decontamination and thorough cleaning.
Dr Fong said testing has continued at Tamavua Twomey Hospital, CWM Hospital, Labasa Hospital and Lautoka Hospital and based on that he had one new COVID-19 case to report.
“This new case is a household member of the Lakena cases reported earlier, and he was already in isolation at Navua Hospital when he registered a positive result,” he said.
“Given his first test upon entering quarantine was negative, we do not view him as a high-risk case for wider transmission.”
Health officials also announced five recoveries, with Fiji now having 48 active COVID-19 cases in isolation, six of which are border quarantine cases, 29 locally transmitted cases and 13 are currently being investigated to determine source of transmission.
