Fiji

The Moderna vaccine will be used in the rollout that begins on Monday.

Health Secretary James Fong said the Moderna vaccine would be rolled out by school clusters across the country.

Dr Fong said unlike the workforce, vaccination for children would only be conducted with the consent of parents or guardians.

Parents and guardians will need to sign a consent form for their children to receive the vaccine, he said.

He said parents could register their child online through the Vaccine Registry Portal which is available from this weekend.

The study conducted by NGO, Dialogue Fiji from June 25 to July 10 this year found that 53.9 percent of Fijians surveyed believed the Covid-19 vaccine was "very safe".

The survey, 'Determinants of Covid-19 Vaccines Hesitancy in Fiji', stated that public confidence in the effectiveness of the vaccines to prevent infection may be affected by perceived risks associated with vaccination.

"Of the 1047 respondents, only 53.9 percent reported the vaccine was 'very safe', while 19.4 percent reported the vaccines to be 'little safe' to 'not safe at all'," Dialogue Fiji stated.

The Government also confirmed 250 new cases for the 24 hours to 8am yesterday.

Thirteen of the new cases are on the outer island of Kadavu and three patients are pregnant women.

Permanent Secretary of Health Dr James Fong said, "This means there are now 270 active cases of Covid-19 in Kadavu," he said. "All these individuals have been isolated."

Fiji now has 16,267 active cases. There were 1102 recoveries.

The death toll is at 505, which 503 of these are from the latest outbreak that began in April, 2021.

It comes amid concerns raised by the Health Ministry and the public at the rate of children dying from the virus in Fiji.

So far about 10 young people have succumbed to the Delta variant, with the latest victims a six-month-old boy and an 11-year-old girl among the dead reported last weekend.

Fiji's chief medical advisor Dr Jemesa Tudravu said vaccinating children would also be a crucial factor in deciding when schools reopen

Schools have been closed since April this year.

Fiji has reported 591 new cases of COVID-19 for the 24 hours to 8am on Monday.

The Government also confirmed six deaths, taking the toll to 444 - 442 of them from this latest outbreak that began in April.

That compares with 303 cases and five deaths in the previous 24-hour period.

Of the latest cases, 498 were recorded in the Western Division, 89 in the Central Division and four cases on remote Kadavu in the east.

Fiji now has 19,062 active cases in isolation.

Health Secretary Dr James Fong said the four new cases on Kadavu were from Namalata Village.

In its latest update, the government said the country has a seven-day rolling average of 10 COVID deaths per day, with six in the west and four in the central division.

Health Secretary Doctor James Fong said the country is averaging 1462 new cases and 10 deaths per day over the last week.

The death toll is at 433, with 431 of them from this latest outbreak that began in April this year.

He said 230 positive patients, who died from serious medical conditions they had before contracting COVID-19, were not classified as dying from the virus.

The 63 year-old woman from Rakiraki Village in Yale, Kadavu, was declared dead on arrival at the Vunisea Hospital on Tuesday.

If her death is found to have been caused by COVID, this will be the Eastern Division's first case of the virus.

The woman's death comes amid 781 new cases of the Delta variant reported in the 24 hours to 8am yesterday.

The government also confirmed eight more deaths, taking the toll to 421.

That compares with 653 cases and eight deaths in the previous 24-hour period.

There are over 23,000 active cases in isolation with three quarters of them at home.

The death toll is now at 368 - 366 of them from the latest outbreak that began in April.

Chief medical adviser Dr Jemesa Tudravu said 386 individuals were admitted at the COVID-19 isolation wards at the hospitals.

He said over 40 percent of these patients were on oxygen support.

Dr Tudravu said 19,905 COVID-positive people were under home isolation in the central division since April.

The government said many people dying of COVID-19 had not given healthcare workers a chance to treat them.

Fiji's Health Ministry reported 398 new cases of COVID-19 and five deaths for the 24 hours to 8am yesterday.

That compared with 568 cases and 13 deaths in the previous 24-hour period.

Health Secretary Doctor James Fong said there were enough ventilators in health facilities across the country to accommodate the COVID-19 patients.

Although the Fiji National Blood Service has a regular pool of blood donors which kept blood supply sufficient, the current challenges of the country's COVID outbreak is keeping donors away, which is a huge problem for the country's three largest hospitals.

The Fiji Red Cross Society's Neomai Kafoa, who is the focal point for its COVID-19 work, said the situation was so serious that they had 85 volunteers on the phones urging friends and family to donate blood.