Fiji confirms two new Covid-19 cases, Suva will go into lockdown

Fiji’s sprawling, bustling capital, Suva, will go into lockdown from tomorrow after two cases of Covid-19 were confirmed in the city.

More than 300,000 people will be confined to their homes, and all non-essential businesses will be ordered to close for at least two weeks.

Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama confirmed the two cases at a news conference, bringing the national total to seven.

The latest cases are a couple who lived at Nabua, a settlement in the city, and the health ministry said contact tracing was underway.

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They are a 21- year-old woman and her 33-year-old husband, both of whom are hairdressers in the city. The couple and their daughter are being held in isolation at Navua Hospital, the government said.

“It appears that our newest two cases are unrelated to our first five cases. We’re actively identifying all of these individuals’ close contacts. We’ve identified a contact who lived at home with these two patients after returning from India as the likeliest transmitter of the virus,” Bainimarama sai.

Bainimarma said he was concerned as other members of the community were highly likely to have been infected – the couple both lived in a crowded community, interacting with many of its people. They both worked public-facing jobs at salons in some of the city’s busiest shopping centres.