Ninety-eight contacts of the two doctors at the Lautoka Divisional Hospital who are the latest cases of COVID-19 infection have been identified.
Ministry of Health and Medical Services permanent secretary Dr James Fong in the COVID-19 press briefing this evening said an immediate and intensive contact tracing exercise was conducted.
He said they are quite sure one doctor had passed the virus to the other doctor.
“But individually, they both came into contact with many others. So far, 98 have been identified,” Dr Fong said.
“Many of these contacts – unsurprisingly – are their colleagues who work at Lautoka Hospital, including doctors and nurses,” he said.
“As per protocol, these Fijians must be entered into two weeks of quarantine.
“This has seriously affected our staffing capacity, particularly for medical and surgical services.
“We have re-deployed staff from other facilities to cover these gaps, but needless to say, it will be a very demanding two weeks of shifts for the staff at the Lautoka Hospital. Still, we are confident we can manage.”
Meanwhie there was no new case of COVID-19 reported today.
