Thirteen more people have tested positive to Covid-19 on remote Kadavu, with three patients - all pregnant mothers - admitted at the Vunisea Hospital.
Photo: AFP
The Government also confirmed 250 new cases and one death for the 24 hours to 8am on Thursday.
That compares with 290 cases and eight deaths recorded the previous 24 hours.
Health Secretary Dr James Fong said of Thursday's cases, 186 were from the Western Division, 51 from the Central Division and 13 cases from the Eastern Division (Kadavu).
"This means there are now 270 active cases of Covid-19 in Kadavu," he said. "All these individuals have been isolated."
Dr Fong also reported one new death which was a 71-year-old woman from Nausori.
He said she presented to the Colonial War Memorial Hospital in severe respiratory distress and on 31 August but died the next day.
There have been 1102 recoveries, with 16,267 active cases in isolation.
The death toll is at 505 - 503 from this latest outbreak that began in April.
Vunisea Hospital in Kadavu. Photo: Ministry of Health, Fiji
Pregnant Covid mums hospitalised
Dr Fong said the three women were brought to Vunisea Hospital in Kadavu for close monitoring.
He said processes for the management of deaths had also been established.
He said nine health screening teams had been deployed to systematically undertake outbreak assessments for the 75 villages and 15 settlements on Kadavu.
So far, seven villages had been completed and the initial assessment is expected to be completed.
"The teams are doing swabbing and screening, contact tracing, checking immunisation status and doing vaccination, as well as training the community health workers in each community on monitoring positive patients in their own homes with pulse oximeter machines," Dr Fong said.
"Patients who show low readings in oximetry are referred to the zone nurses and to Vunisea Hospital or Kavala Health Centre for further assessment and care."
Dr Fong said a severe case from Somosomo Village on Malolo was evacuated and two more severe cases on the island were early evidence of an outbreak and the risk of community transmission was very high.
Police at a checkpoint near Nabouwalu, Photo: Supplied/ Fiji Police
Restrictions lifted in Fiji's north
The Nabouwalu containment protocols have been lifted, the Health Ministry said.
This is after all 17 primary contacts and 85 secondary contacts of a positive case in the northern division port town completed a 14-day quarantine and returned negative test results.
Dr Fong said 708 surveillance swabs, collected from communities in the containment area, all returned negative results.
"Furthermore, daily symptoms screening did not reveal any surges of respiratory illness," he said.
A total of 335,056 samples have been tested since this April outbreak, with 377,917 tested since March 2020.
Dr Fong said 1645 tests were conducted on 1 September, 2021.
"The 7-day daily test average is 1387 tests per day or 1.6 tests per 1,000 population. The national 7-day average daily test positivity is 22.4 percent, which is on a downward trend but still indicating a high level of community transmission."
As of 1 September, 560,940 adults in Fiji have received their first dose of the vaccine and 278,131 got both jabs, Dr Fong said.
He said this means that 96 percent of the target population have received at least one dose and 48.4 percent are now fully vaccinated nation-wide.
