The surge in Covid-19 cases has left Fiji feeling like a community "under siege", according to a Kiwi doctor deployed to Suva last week to support local health authorities.
Fiji recorded 386 new cases and two deaths in the 24 hours as of 8am yesterday, taking the total number of cases recorded during the current outbreak that began in April to 5,569, including 27 deaths.
Christchurch anaesthetist Wayne Morriss is one of two Kiwis who have been sent to Fiji as part of Australia's medical assessment team, as the Covid-19 numbers there continue to climb.
Speaking to Q+A from Suva this morning, Morriss said the arrival into Suva had been "quite confronting."
"It feels like a community under siege," Morriss told Q+A.
"The people are very worried about this outbreak and worried they'll be sick. People are following the general guidelines, there's lots of social distancing, everybody's wearing masks and people seem to be taking this very seriously."
Cases were expected to continue to rise, Morriss said, and Suva's Colonial War Memorial Hospital - the city's main hospital - had already been restricted to Covid-19 patients only.
Another small field hospital has been set up at Suva Point and Morriss and his team have been tasked to support that facility as well as look at the capacity of the memorial hospital.
Morriss said he believed more deaths were inevitable.
"The health authorities are very concerned and we on the ground are very concerned.
"The outbreak just has to run its course."
However, Morriss told Q+A a strong testing program and vaccination rate was helping counter the spread of the virus.
Over 54 per cent of eligible Fijians have recieved the first dose of the vaccine, which Morriss said had the effect of reducing the chance of infection by 30 per cent and hospitalisation by 70 per cent.
"We think it's really important Fijians continue to follow the advice of their government...they need to continue going to get vaccinated."
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