SUVA, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- Fiji currently has no COVID-19 cases in the community, Fijian Health Minister Ifereimi Waqainabete said on Thursday.
The minister said the last quarantined COVID-19 patient was released on Wednesday after multiple test results came out negative.
He said it's now 180 days since the last community transmission and despite Fiji being free from the disease, people are being urged to continue to follow COVID-19 protocols to ensure they are safe from the virus.
Fiji had a total number of 32 COVID-19 cases since March 19 when the Pacific island nation confirmed its first COVID-19 case.
The island nation had six active border quarantine cases, all of whom were being treated in isolation.
So far Fiji has recorded two deaths of COVID-19 and still maintains a strict travel restriction for foreign visitors as it also keeps a nationwide curfew effective from March 30.
One more laboratory for its Center for Disease Control (CDC) in Nadi, Fiji's third largest city, is being planned in order to expand its COVID-19 testing capabilities.
Waqainabete said earlier that his ministry is working with the World Health Organization (WHO) to set up a CDC testing lab in Nadi and expand COVID-19 testing capabilities at the hospital in Lautoka, Fiji's second largest city.
He added the WHO has assessed the situation and declared that the country's COVID-19 testing is 100 percent compliant of the highest calibre of testing.
Currently, more than 10,000 Fijians have been tested for COVID-19.
In March, Fiji's Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama officially opened the molecular lab at the CDC in the capital of Suva, enabling all suspected cases of COVID-19 to be tested at the lab locally. Enditem
