SUVA – The Fijian capital here today enters a 14-day lockdown as the Pacific island nation battles to contain a Covid-19 spike following a “superspreader” funeral event.
Around 100,000 people in the city must stay in containment zones, and non-essential businesses are shuttered after the first community coronavirus cases in 12 months were detected.
A soldier contracted the disease at a quarantine facility, and is believed to have transmitted it to a maid, who then exposed up to 500 people at a funeral.
The health and medical services permanent secretary, James Fong, said four new infections emerged over the weekend.
“Three of the cases involved persons who attended the funeral that we have identified as a superspreader event, including a husband and wife who circulated through the community.”
It is not clear how the fourth person, a woman from the outskirts of Suva, became infected.
“She and her husband have been placed in quarantine, but prudence requires us to treat this case as a possible community transmission,” said Fong.
“Because we cannot yet pin down the movements of these people and identify all their contacts, we are forced to take strict precautionary measures.”
Fiji has largely contained Covid-19 through strict isolation measures and border controls, recording fewer than 100 cases and just two deaths in a population of 930,000.
The emergence of community transmission is a blow to Fiji’s hopes of opening quarantine-free travel bubbles with Australia and New Zealand, the source of most of its international visitors.
Its economy is heavily dependent on tourism, which has all but evaporated during the pandemic.
Monthly visitor numbers were down by up to 99% from pre-pandemic levels, according to government statistics.
Australia and New Zealand opened a trans-Tasman bubble a week ago, allowing quarantine-free travel between the two countries – although New Zealand has since suspended contact with Western Australia due to a Covid-19 outbreak in Perth. – AFP, April 26, 2021
