SUVA, Jun 10 (NNN-PIN) – Fijians have been advised to get their booster doses, as immunity obtained from COVID-19 vaccination wanes over time, and the current case numbers indicate an urgency to increase the booster dose coverage.
Fiji’s Ministry of Health recorded 61 new cases of COVID-19 this week, Fiji Broadcasting Corporation (FBC) reported today.
Permanent Secretary for Health, James Fong, said, of the 61 cases, 38 were from the central part of Fiji, 18 in the western part and five in the northern part.
Fong said, 95 percent of the target population have received the first two doses of the vaccine and 30 percent of the population above the age of 18 have had a booster dose.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health reported a positive response from its school vaccination programme, as 90.6 percent of the eligible population above the age of 12 are fully vaccinated.
The ministry rolled out the programme in Jan, which was targeted at teenagers aged 15 to 17.
A total of 15,638 students between the ages of 12 and 14 have received two doses of the vaccine, while 32,017 children between the ages of 15 and 17 are fully vaccinated.
The total number of COVID-19 cases in Fiji surpassed 64,000, since Mar, 2020, when the island nation reported its first confirmed case.
The country has so far reported a total of 863 COVID-19 related deaths.– NNN-PIN
