Two Die Of COVID-19, Both Were Fully Vaccinated With Pre-existing Medical Condition
While both these deaths occurred in individuals who have been immunized with 2 doses of vaccine, they both had significant underlying medical conditions and were over the age of 50.
02 Jan 2022 11:21
The Ministry of Health and Medical Services has reported two COVID-19 deaths in its January 01, 2022 report.
The first is of a 67-year-old male from Raiwaqa who died at home last Wednesday 29/12/2021 in respiratory distress.
The Ministry of Health report said the Raiwaqa man had a number of severe pre-existing medical conditions that have been assessed to also have contributed to his death.
He received his first dose of the COVID -19 vaccine by the end of July and his second dose by the end of August. This means he was fully vaccinated.
The second COVID -19 death to report is of a 76-year-old male from Nadawa who died at home on Friday 31/12/2021 in respiratory distress. He had a significant pre-existing medical condition that may have contributed to his death. He received his first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine by mid-July and his second dose by mid-September. This means he was fully vaccinated.
While both these deaths occurred in individuals who have been immunized with 2 doses of vaccine, they both had significant underlying medical conditions and were over the age of 50, the report said.
It is known that these factors place a person at higher risk of severe disease, even if fully vaccinated.
Persons over the age of 50 and those who have underlying chronic diseases such as heart disease, kidney disease, lung diseases, etc. are strongly urged to come forward and have a booster dose of the vaccine to increase their protection from infection and severe disease.
There has been a total of 700 deaths due to COVID-19 in Fiji, with 698 of these deaths during the outbreak that started in April this year. Please note that due to the time required by clinical teams to investigate, classify and report deaths, a 4-day interval is given to calculate the 7 days rolling average of deaths, based on the date of death, to help ensure the data collected is complete before the average is reported.
Therefore, as of December 28th, the national 7 days rolling average for COVID-19 deaths per day is 0.1, with a case fatality rate of 1.32%.
The Ministry have recorded 620 COVID-19 positive patients who died from serious medical conditions they had before they contracted COVID-19; these are not classified as COVID-19 deaths.
New Cases
Since the last update on 29/12/2021, we have recorded a total of 805 new cases; of which 316 new cases were recorded on 30/12/2021, 223 new cases were recorded on 31/12/2021, and 266 new cases in the last 24 hours ending at 8 am this morning.
Overall, there have been 54,077 cases recorded in the 2nd wave, with 71% of the cases from the Central Division, 27% of the cases from the Western Division, and 1% of the cases from the Eastern Division, and 1% from the Northern Division.
Of the 805 cases recorded since the last update, 388 cases were recorded in the Northern Division; 134 cases were recorded in the Western Division, and 283 cases were recorded in the Central Division.
Our national 7- day rolling average is 18 daily cases calculated for 28th December 2021.
Deaths:
This curve depicts the daily death count by division since the 2nd wave of this outbreak that began in April 2021. Overall, the death rate graphs for the Central and Western Divisions indicate a declining trend.
The differences between the Central and Western are similar to the incidence of the daily cases and are likely a reflection of vaccination levels, COVID mitigation measures, and differences in population density.
Tests
As of today, rapid antigen tests conducted in the Ministry of Health and Medical Services health facilities are being added to testing numbers and test positivity calculations going back to December 23rd.
Prior to this, only PCR tests were reported, though recently, rapid antigen test positives were also reported, and used in test positivity calculations.
Furthermore, negative PCR test results from one lab were not being received nor added to the test count, while their positives were being reported. As test positivity is calculated by dividing positive tests by total tests, this resulted in test positivity being reported as higher than the actual. This has now been corrected.
Nevertheless, it should be noted that test positivity remains high and the trend of test positivity remains the same as it continues to increase along with case numbers.
