The Health and Medical Services Ministry issued a statement yesterday saying The Fiji Times had erroneously quoted Health Minister Dr Ifereimi Waqainabete as saying nine COVID-19 cases had been admitted to the Intensive Care Unit while responding to a motion raised by Opposition parliamentarian Prof Biman Prasad on Tuesday.
The Fiji Times had quoted Dr Waqainabete’s comments from page 921 of the draft Hansard for Tuesday, May 26 which quoted Dr Waqainabete as saying, “We have had only 18 COVID-19 cases; nine were admitted to Intensive Care Unit (ICU). I have said it before and will say it again, some of them got quite sick.
“They were managed effectively by our people on the ground, people who are able to stay because we have been able to retain our staff because we have increased their salaries”.
And on page 959 of the Wednesday, May 27 draft Hansard, Dr Waqainabete is quoted as saying, “None of Fiji’s cases have had severe illness and none have required intensive care unit-level care and it was not by fluke, it was by a dedicated group of personnel and also the resources that were given to them by Government to do the work that needs to be done.”
