Fijians urged to take booster shots amid Covid spike

Suva, June 10

Fijians have been advised to get their booster doses against Covid-19 amid a spike in news cases. Fiji's Ministry of Health has recorded 61 new cases of Covid-19 this week, Xinhua news agency quoted a report by the Fiji Broadcasting Corporation (FBC) as saying on Friday.

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 per cent of the target population have received the first two doses of the vaccine and 30 per cent 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 per cent of the eligible population above the age of 12 are fully vaccinated.

The Ministry rolled out the programme in January which was targeted at teenagers aged 15, 16 and 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 inoculated.

The total number of Covid-19 infections in Fiji has surpassed 64,000 since March 2020 when the island nation reported its first confirmed case.

The country has so far reported a total of 863 deaths.

--IANS