Fiji Hotel and Tourism Association chief executive officer Fantasha Lockington is urging Care Fiji Commitment (CFC) recognised operators to uphold the integrity of Rapid Antigen Tests (RAT).

Mrs Lockington was speaking during the Webinar on New Testing Protocols for Australia hosted by Tourism Fiji and the association on Friday.

Ms Lockington’s comments come as the bulk of the questions were surrounded on who is classified as medically trained, and can wellness ambassadors who have received training, can they conduct the swab tests?

Given that Australia is now also accepting Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) for those returning to the country, Mrs Lockington outlined what is acceptable from CFC operators.

“My understanding, and I have yet to have somebody tell me that it’s incorrect, if your wellness ambassador has been trained by either Zen’s Medical (in Nadi) or one of the labs, then you can confirm that they’ve been trained,” Mrs Lockington said.

“And if under some sort of pressure, you are demanded to show when the training has been or took place, by all means, I absolutely believe you can go ahead.

“I understand from people who deal more with guests from the US that this has already been the practice.

“It is acceptable by the airports as well as the US Embassy, so we don’t feel that we’re too far off that in terms of doing that same thing for Australian people returning.

“Having said that, we’re also looking into: Do we need our wellness ambassadors trained by medically trained staff so by a doctor or a nurse? What is an acceptable amount of training?

“When it comes to the RAT testing guests can actually self-test.

“The key part of this whole discussion is around being able to trust that we are going to have somebody confirm that you have seen that that test is negative or positive.

“So if we maintain the integrity in terms of we’ve done the test, you have both the guests (get) the swab and maybe a hotel staff checking, you can say that three (or two) people have checked.

“I do not see personally why the hotel can’t be the one to sign it off.”

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