Health Ministry permanent secretary Dr James Fong says he has restricted all travel pass issuance to minimise the occurrence of incidents such as the one which occurred in Nadroga last week.
He made the comment while responding to SODELPA parliamentarian Inosi Kuridrani, who claimed Namatakula villagers were placed at risk after three people travelled from Suva and entered the village last Saturday without any indication of whether they had cleared COVID-19 protocols.
In a statement, Mr Kuridrani questioned the approval of passes for the three because it involved movement from a containment area (Suva) to a non-containment area (Namatakula).
“I learnt of this on June 20, that the individuals have been interacting with people in the village,” he said.
“I am informed they are now under some form of quarantine in a farmhouse near the village.
“The turaganikoro of Namatakula was informed by officials from the subdivisional medical office (SDMO)that they would conduct testing of these three individuals on Monday, June 21.
“Yet by then, these individual were in the village for at least two nights, and had interacted with fellow villagers.
“The SDMO staff informed our turaganikoro that they did not process the passes.”
