9 Mar 2022

In Brief: Pacific Covid-19 updates

4:13 pm on 9 March 2022
Image of flu COVID-19 virus cell. Coronavirus Covid 19 outbreak influenza background. Pandemic medical health risk. 3D illustration concept.

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New Caledonia

New Caledonia has recorded another 1,258 Covid-19 cases, confirming the trend of declining infection numbers.

The latest figure, covering the three days since Friday, brings the total number of cases since September to more than 58,000.

The death toll remains unchanged at 304.

The number of hospitalised Covid-19 patients is 25, of whom two are in intensive care.

Kiribati

In Kiribati the health ministry has officially recorded six new cases in the past two days.

This brings the total number of positive infections to two-thousand nine hundred and ninety-one across the country.

But the country's death toll has risen to 12 with a person from North Tarawa dying on Monday.

The government is advising people to continue adhering to the lockdown restrictions.

They say those found in breach of the Covid-19 orders could face imprisonment and spot fines.

Fiji

In Fiji there are 15 new active cases.

Overall, there have been close to 64 thousand cases recorded and 834 people have died.

Overall, there have been 63,964 cases recorded in Fiji, with 68-percent of these from the Central Division.

The national 7-day rolling average of cases is 28 daily cases.

There have been a total of 834 deaths due to COVID-19 in Fiji.

French Polynesia

Another 611 Covid-19 cases have been recorded in French Polynesia in the last 72-hour reporting period, but the pandemic is easing.

The health authorities say 19 patients are in hospital, including two in intensive care.

The number of active cases has continued to decline and is now below 2,000, which is about a third of the figure reported two weeks ago.

The death toll of the pandemic is above 640, with most fatalities registered during last year's outbreak wth the Delta variant.

Cook Islands

In the Cook Islands there are now 130 active cases, and no hospitalisations.

There are only minor conditions reported and still no hospitalisations.

Health Secretary Bob Williams said it's because the Cook Islands' population has a high vaccination rate of 97-percent double dosed.

74 percent of the population have had their booster and almost a quarter of 5-11 year-olds in the Cook Islands are fully vaccinated.

Samoa

Samoa's Ministry of Health has confirmed eight new positive cases of Covid-19 have been quarantined in managed isolation after they arrived on a repatriation flight from New Zealand on Sunday yesterday.

The positive cases arrived on a flight from Auckland and the remaining 164 passengers have returned negative PCR tests and are also in controlled quarantine.

All 127 frontline workers who processed the flight are also in quarantine and will remain there for up to 72 hours.

25 frontline workers are isolating after they unloaded a cargo vessel at Matautu wharf in Apia on Tuesday last week.

Four crew on that vessel had earlier tested positive for Covid-19 in American Samoa.

Samoa's government reported no evidence of community transmission in Samoa and the public is encouraged to wear masks, practise two metre distancing and wash hands regularly.