Herd Immunity Vital

The ideal way to protect those not eligible to get vaccinated could be herd immunity by adults. This was confirmed by Head of Fiji’s  Dr Rachel Devi.

She also said another way was to explore sourcing vaccines for those young people ages 12 and above, which the Ministry of Health and Medical Services is doing.

This comes after the COVID-related death of a 15-year-old from Colo-i-Suva, whose death was classified as COVID-19-related.

The deceased was declared dead on arrival by the attending medical officer at the Raiwaqa Health Centre. Her family reported she had been feeling unwell for two days and was not vaccinated, since she was not in the target population of people 18 years and over, who were eligible to receive the vaccine.

The Permanent Secretary for Health and Medical Services Doctor James Fong also confirmed there was not yet a vaccine available here for those under 18 years of age.

Dr Devi saida vaccine, Pfizer, was safe for those under the age of 18. However in terms of the Pfizer vaccine, it was unclear when Fiji would be exploring this option as there was a huge supply and demand issue.

Dr Devi said there were very important studies soon coming up for the Moderna vaccine. According to the World Health Organisation, herd immunity is the indirect protection from an infectious disease that happens when a population is immune, either through vaccination or immunity developed through previous infection.

This is supported through vaccination, however to safely achieve herd immunity against COVID-19, a large proportion of a population would need to be vaccinated. This would lower the overall amount of virus able to spread in the population.