COVID-19 cases

The cases, all from Nausori, north of the capital Suva are believed to have been infected via a case from Makoi.

Makoi has been the site of multiple infections since the second wave of the pandemic began in the country last month.

With the Fiji Centre for Disease Control now operational following several days of closure when some of its staff tested positive, testing is expected to churn out more positive cases.

Health Secretary Dr James Fong said a high volume of swab results from primary and secondary contacts of existing cases would be processed.

A 24-hour curfew will come into effect for Suva and Nausori from 11pm Friday to 4am Tuesday.

Fiji's FBC news reports three of the new cases are co-workers of a staff member of Extra Supermarket, who had tested positive yesterday.

The supermarket has been closed for decontamination purposes while the ministry awaits the test results from the remaining staff and management.

Health Secretary Dr James Fong announced last night that the latest cases are all linked to case number 136, the man from Saru, Lautoka, who showed Covid-like symptoms when he visited the Natabua Health centre.

Fong said the man was one of seven people who had tested positive to the virus last Friday.

"One of the new cases is his wife, another is his daughter, and the third was a primary contact of his wife," he said.

"All three have been in isolation since Saturday.

"The contact tracers are locating and quarantining their close contacts.

These include two nurses - one at Lautoka Hospital where more than 400 staff have been in quarantine since Wednesday.

The hospital has been isolated after a male patient contracted Covid-19 and died last evening.

He has become Fiji's first community case to die of the virus and health authorities have concluded that he had caught Covid-19 in the community, and not in the hospital.

The world's richest Twenty20 league was approaching its halfway stage before it was suspended indefinitely on Tuesday following bubble breaches in two venues.

"The ballpark figure for revenue loss would be to the tune of 2000 crore rupees (20 billion)," Arun Singh Dhumal, treasurer of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), said.

"Given all our contractual obligations, we are yet to find out what would be the actual figure," he said, adding that the governing body's immediate priority was to ensure the league's foreign players returned home safely.

Its health ministry said 3,689 people had died within the past 24 hours.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi met the health minister on Sunday morning to review the crisis.

Hospitals are battling to treat patients amid a chronic shortage of beds and medical oxygen.

Amid the crisis, vote counting started on Sunday for elections held in four states: Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala - and the union territory of Puducherry.

Last night, the ministry announced five new cases of Covid-19 infections.

The new cases come amid 605 tests being carried out in 24 hours.

The first two cases were close household contacts of previously announced cases and that both persons had tested positive while in quarantine.

Health Secretary James Fong said one of the two new cases is the wife of an earlier positive case from Nausori on Viti Levu, while the other is the man's 52-year-old aunt, who worked at a garment factory.

The virus is now believed to have spread to many places on the main island, after one of the latest cases was reported to be a 54-year-old man, who is a care taker of the Ra Provincial Office on north- western Viti Levu.

 There is no clear indication of how he may have gotten the virus.

Health officials are conducting contact tracing and tests to see if he is linked with any of the recent cases.

He had showed symptoms such a body aches when he visited the Nanukuloa Health Centre on 24 April and is now in the isolation ward at Lautoka Hospital. 

The latest victims are the children of the Suva woman confirmed with the virus on Wednesday.

They are a 14 year-old girl and a seven-month-old baby boy.

The 40 year-old woman and her family, from the Wainitarawau settlement in Cunningham in Suva, are thought to have caught Covid-19 at a funeral in Lautoka last week.

That event was also attended by a hotel maid, who had tested positive for Covid-19 earlier.

This comes as the office of Papua New Guinea's Pandemic Response Controller confirmed another 376 cases of the virus in the past 48 hours to Monday at noon.

It increased the country's total number of cases to 9,952.

The death toll is now 91.

As well as Bougainville, eleven other PNG provinces reported new cases that were included in the Controller's update.