By Lice Movono, RNZ Pacific correspondent in Suva

Five police officers are among 39 new cases of covid-19 in Fiji while the government announced late last night that 32 of the latest cases are from existing clusters.

Another 11 cases were reported from the country’s main hospital in the capital Suva.

Health Secretary Dr James Fong said the ministry’s mitigation strategy was to isolate cases, treat seriously-ill patients and ensure the success of its vaccination rollout programme.

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But he said they were concerned that Lami and the police barracks in Nasinu, both clusters outside Suva, may see increasing numbers of cases.

Teams are tracing and testing known contacts and are isolating positive patients to prevent further spread of the virus, Dr Fong said.

“In the near-term, we are concerned that Lami may see increasing numbers of cases.

“We also anticipate more cases from the cluster at the Police Barracks in Nasinu.

“Our stationary and mobile screening teams are tracing and testing known contacts and are isolating positive patients to prevent further spread of the virus.”

Police tried their best
Acting Police Commissioner Rusiate Tudravu told local media the force had tried its best to prevent the spread of the virus among its officers.

Initially three officers from the Nasinu Police Station had tested positive for the virus and another 15 were swabbed earlier in the day.

Neither Tudravu nor Dr Fong provided information on how the officers were infected.

“I’m not surprised because we are classified as high mobile risk because of our job, it requests us to be on the front line,” Tudravu said.

“Having said that, we have tried our best not to have anyone in the force to have the virus.

“We are there in the front line and we are vulnerable to that.”

The infected police officers are on home isolation and monitored by the Ministry of Health and guarded by police officers, Tudravu added.

Latest cases
The other latest cases included six from Nawaka, Nadi; three from the warehouses of the Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption-FICAC, two from the Republic of Fiji Military Forces Naval Division, two from Waila in Nausori, one from Naitasiri, one from Caubati outside Suva and another case from the Covid-19 Incident Management Team at the Health Ministry’s headquarters in Suva.

The ministry is yet to determine the source of infection for seven other cases — four from Lami Town, one from Toorak a suburb adjacent to the central business district of Suva, one from Nasinu Town and one from Reservoir Road near the city.

Meanwhile, the government’s vaccination rollout programme continues with 228,030 people having already received at least one dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Officials reported 50,000 doses of the vaccine had arrived in the country from Australia this week.

“The vaccine administration in Nadi had been temporarily halted due to a case among the administration teams,” Dr Fong said.

“Relevant personnel have since been cleared and vaccine administration in Nadi has resumed.”

Seven patients had recovered and there were now 656 active cases in Fiji.

There have been 849 cases since this outbreak began two months ago and 919 cases since March 2020.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

This post was originally published on Radio Free.