More than half of the new infections of Covid-19 in Fiji are being reported in the western division.
.. Photo: Fiji govt
This comes amid 653 cases of the delta variant reported for the 24 hours to 8am on Wednesday, with 462 from the west.
The government also confirmed eight more deaths, taking the toll to 413.
That compares with 590 cases and 11 deaths in the previous 24-hour period.
Fiji now has 21,304 positive people in isolation, with three quarters of them at home.
Health Secretary Doctor James Fong said the latest deaths were reported between August 14 and 18.
He said five victims were from the Central Division and three from the West.
"There have been seven more deaths of Covid-19 positive patients. However, these deaths have been classified as non-covid related by their doctors," Dr Fong said.
"With the new deaths, there had now been 413 deaths due to Covid, with 411 of them from this latest outbreak that began in April.
"There have also been 1088 new recoveries reported since the last update, which means that there are now 21,304 active cases."
Dr Fong said 13,652 active cases are from the Central Division, 7651 in the West and one active case in the Northern Division.
There have been 41,760 cases recorded during the outbreak that started in April 2021 and a total of 41,830 infections were recorded since March 2020, with 19,883 recoveries.
Fiji now has over 21-thousand 21,304 positive people in isolation, with three quarters of them at home.
Fijians can check the Ministry's vaccine dashboard to find real-time data on first-dose and second-dose numbers at the national, divisional and sub-divisional levels.
.. Photo: Supplied/Save the Children
$US12 million for Covid costs
Meanwhile, the Health Ministry will use $US12 million allocated in the 2021-2022 National Budget to meet its response costs to the pandemic.
Health Minister Dr Ifereimi Waqainabete told Parliament this week the money will be used for accommodation, quarantining citizens and staff, expenditure for contact tracing, surveillance, monitoring cases and contacts.
He said the finance would also fund the operational costs of Covid-19 responses, the procurement of consumables and medicine, PPEs.
Responding to queries from Opposition MP Ro Teimumu Kepa, the minister said the budget would fund the operational costs, procurement of consumables and medicine, PPEs, intensive care unit (ICU), the consumables and biomedical equipment and digital health.
"We've really gone into digital health and virtual platforms for discussions," Waqainabete said.
"The budget also factors in risk communication training and field hospital support and we have the FEMAT here in Laucala Campus."
Waqainabete said the Covid-19 management team had the operational responsibility for the implementation of the funds under the supervision of the ministry's permanent secretary as the chief operating officer for the ministry.
"The budget also factors in risk communication training and field hospital support and we have the FEMAT here in Laucala Campus."
Earlier, the ministry reported 327 patients were admitted to hospital - 124 at the Lautoka Hospital, 44 admitted at the FEMAT field hospital, and 159 patients at the Colonial War Memorial, St Giles and Makoi hospitals.
Fifty-four patients are considered to be in severe condition, and 15 are in critical condition.
A total of 311,742 samples have been tested since April 2021, with 354,603 tested in March 2020.
"1664 tests have been reported for August 17th. The 7-day daily test average is 1513 tests per day or 1.7 tests per 1,000 population. The national 7-day average daily test positivity is 33.3 percent.
"As of the 17th August, 537,704 adults in Fiji have received their first dose of the vaccine and 220,034 got both jabs.
"This means that 91.7 percent of the target population have received at least one dose and 37.5 percent are now fully vaccinated nation-wide."
Photo: Facebook / Fiji Government
