Fiji working to secure COVID-19 vaccines for the rest of its population, 18 years and above
Fiji is working to secure COVID-19 vaccines for at least 650,000 of its nationals, who are above 18 years old.
This is in addition to the 100,800 AstraZeneca vaccines allocated to the Pacific nation from the COVAX Facility initiated by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
“While we focus on this target population, we are also working to secure vaccines for all individuals above 18 years old in Fiji. This is required for at least 650,000 individuals which equates to 1.3 million doses of vaccines, said Dr Ifereimi Waqainabete, the country’s health minister in a statement to Parliament in Suva today.
Dr Waqainabete said apart from the COVAX support which covers the initial 20% of the population, the Government is also actively engaged in bilateral and multilateral discussions with partners who are willing to support Fiji in acquiring additional doses of vaccines for the rest of the population.
Government, through the Ministry of Health has set a high target of vaccinating 95% of all eligible individuals in Fiji that are above 18 years of age.
The next batch of 88,800 doses from COVAX will be received in the months of April to May.
“As per our vaccine deployment plan, the next batch of vaccines would target the rest of the health care workers across the country, including Private Practitioners across Fiji.
“Apart from these targeted population, we want to protect our most vulnerable population which are individuals with co-morbid conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, cardiac issues, and renal diseases etc. including persons with disability.
Government anticipates vaccinating at least 145,400 individuals in the coming few months, said Dr Waqainabete.
He informed Parliament the first 6,278 frontline workers have been vaccinated with no adverse side effects.
“Some individuals developed mild side effects which were temporary and adequately managed with symptomatic care (antipyretics) and hydration.
“The deployment of the first batch of vaccines has provided an excellent opportunity to test our plan, identify potential gaps in our processes, and put measures in place to address our systems and processes before the bigger vaccine deployment exercise commences, said Dr Waqainabete.
Since the first case was reported a year ago, Fiji has now had 67 cases, with 64 recoveries and two deaths. The last 49 cases have been international travel associated cases detected in border quarantine.
It has been341 days since the last case was detected outside border quarantine on 18 April 2020.
As of today, a total of 35,986 laboratory tests have been carried out, with a daily average of 234 tests per day over the last seven days, and a weekly average of 1609 tests per week over the last two weeks.
“Our testing capability now stands at 484 tests per positive case diagnosed, with a ratio of 40 tests per 1000 population. We are seeing the continuing increase in testing ratio as our capacity to test continues to improve, said Dr Waqainabete.
Fiji’s first COVID-19 case, a flight attendant employed by its national airline, was declared on 19 March 2020
SOURCE: PACNEWS
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