Covid-19 tests

Health Secretary Dr James Fong confirmed the cases of interest were Fijian nationals returning from Africa.

"In Fiji, we currently have Covid-positive travellers in quarantine who arrived in the country from African states before we knew about Omicron.

"They have been quarantined in line with the stringent measures we apply to countries we consider a red zone for ongoing viral spread. Their specimens will be forwarded this week overseas for genetic sequencing."

Mt Eden, Massey, Māngere, Favona, Ōtara, Papatoetoe and Manurewa are under increased scrutiny by health officials because of their links to mystery cases or clusters that may have unexpected cases.

Counties Manukau District Health Board chief executive Margie Apa said it was most important they get tested if they had symptoms – but they also wanted people without symptoms to come forward.

In a statement released late Wednesday night, Health Permanent Secretary Dr James Fong said the first six were related to the Vunimono/Nadali cluster and were in home isolation.

The other five are household contacts of a previous case who had been quarantined at a facility in Nausori and had tested negative when they were first admitted to the facility.

People arriving by plane, train or boat, including UK nationals, will have to take a test up to 72 hours before leaving the country they are in.

All those arriving from places not on the government's travel corridor list must still self-isolate for 10 days.

There are issues with testing availability and capacity, so some countries will initially be exempt.

For instance, the requirement will not apply to travellers from St Lucia, Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda for six days.

During talks between the Tokyo 2020 organising committee, the Japanese government and Tokyo Metropolitan Government, further guidelines for how the Japanese capital plans to host the rearranged Games next year were discussed.

Current visitors to Japan need to quarantine for 14 days upon arrival but athletes and other key stakeholders arriving for the Games will be exempt from those restrictions.

More than 15,000 athletes are expected in Tokyo for the Olympics, which begin on July 23, with the majority staying at the purpose-built Athletes' Village.

Over the weekend it was announced the Flying Fijians would have their third consecutive test match cancelled due to a coronavirus outbreak in the squad.

The team's match game against Scotland, originally set for 29 November, has gone the way of two other matches.

Fiji's clash with Italy was supposed to be played on Saturday gone, but was called off after 29 members tested positive for Covid-19 last week.

A test against France was cancelled the week before as it became evident the virus was present among the touring party.

The test results for the first swab test conducted at the Tanoa International Dateline Hotel have all returned negative.

A statement said daily tests conducted by Health staff, who are also in quarantine with the passengers have gone well, with no one showing any symptoms of the coronavirus so far.

All passengers are going through two daily tests for temperature, blood pressure and pulse rate.

Meals are provided three times a day and groups are allowed separate times to do their supervised exercise and walks around the zoned off hotel hall and foyer.

The government had set itself a goal of carrying out at least 700,000 tests per week, he said. Once a person tests positive, tracing would begin to identify, test and isolate all those who had been in close contact with the individual.

"When we end the lockdown, we will have the capacity to massively scale up testing," Philippe said in an address to parliament.

He said the lockdown had saved tens of thousands of lives but that the time had come to ease the unprecedented peacetime restrictions and rescue an economy in free-fall.