HEALTH Minister Dr Ifereimi Waqainabete made some interesting comments yesterday in Parliament.
While COVID-19 has largely affected the older population, he said, a review of the ministry’s disease outbreak data has revealed that Fiji has to date recorded 8345 cases of COVID-19 in the age range of 0 to 19 years.
Dr Waqainabete revealed this in Parliament yesterday while delivering his ministerial statement.
The data, he said, also showed that Fiji had seven deaths because of COVID-19 within the same age group, with a death rate of 2.1 per 100,000 population.
Comparatively, he pointed out, New Zealand recorded an incidence rate of 0.76 per 1000 population and Australia 3.41 per 1000 population.
The significant regional difference in the observed incidence rate of COVID-19 among the young population, he said, would require further investigation.
However, he said, it was a clear indication of the risk among our children and young people from contracting the COVID-19 disease and the great need to ensure that we were protecting our eligible young people with the appropriate vaccine.
“Therefore, we strongly urge parents and guardians to agree for their children to get vaccinated and get protected from the COVID-19 disease,” he said.
We have said it before. We cannot afford to relax our guards.
We know our containment borders around Viti Levu have been lifted.
We know there was joy when that happened.
The last thing we expect though is for people to become complacent.
We cannot afford to shrug aside all precautions and live life dangerously.
We cannot afford to cast aside our responsibility to protect our children.
As the vaccination campaign for our young is rolled out across the country, we must accept that there are age groups that will not be getting their jabs right now.
They remain in the vulnerable group that we must protect.
That means adhering to every COVID-19 safety protocol.
That means wearing a mask everytime we are out in public.
It means washing our hands often with soap and water.
It means adhering to physical distancing rules.
It seems far too many people wrongly believe we are done with the virus.
They feel there’s nothing to worry about.
We must not embrace this mistaken belief.
This is very dangerous.
We are still not out of the woods yet.
Let’s stay focused.
Let’s do what is right for ourselves, our loved ones and for our nation.
Together Fiji!
