Health authorities expect the number of Covid-19 cases in Fiji to rise over the next two days as the country's Centre for Disease Control resumes operations.
Covid-19 screening and testing underway in Fiji. Photo: Facebook/Fiji govt
Four more cases were detected yesterday, all of them from Nausori, north of the capital Suva.
Testing for the virus was temporarily halted at the Centre for Disease Control last week so it could be decontaminated after some of its staff tested positive.
Health Secretary Dr James Fong said a high volume of swabs from contacts of existing cases would now be processed.
The Suva and Nausori areas are under lockdown restrictions and the government has said that may extend beyond tomorrow if the Indian variant of the virus continued to spread.
The figures announced late last night revealed Fiji is dealing with 49 active cases in the current outbreak, which has caused two deaths.
University of Auckland public health associate professor Colin Tukuitonga said he was not too worried because the numbers were low.
"Obviously we need to watch it but it is not as explosive as it could have [been]."
He told Morning Report the numbers over the next few days would be of significance in determining a lockdown extension.
Overall, Fiji was doing a good job at containing the spread, he said, despite not having tools like genomic sequencing.
"The issue is to make sure communities adhere to the requests to stay home."
"We really want to see what the numbers look like over the next two, three days" - Colin Tukuitonga