Covid 19: WHO records 140 cases in Tuvalu

Princess Margret Hospital Tuvalu. Photo / Supplied

By RNZ

The World Health Organisation says 140 cases of Covid-19 have been reported in Tuvalu.

A WHO spokesperson, based in Suva, says Tuvalu’s first community transmission was detected on November 2, when routine surveillance led to two cases being picked up.

“In some families, all family members are positive,” a Tuvalu Department of Health spokesperson said.

Tuvalu was one of the last countries in the world that had not experienced community transmission of the coronavirus.

Now, just six days since the first cases were discovered, during a routine surveillance check, the number of cases in the community is well over 100 and climbing.

“Hospitals and health clinics are operating under Covid-19 emergency mode,” a Tuvalu Health Department spokesperson said.

The index case was a 25-year-old woman who has no history of traveling overseas.

All of the positive cases are isolating at home according to a post on the Tuvalu Department of Health Facebook page.

Contact tracing by health staff and volunteers from Tuvalu Red Cross Society is ongoing as authorities try to ring fence the outbreak, according to a World Health Organisation spokesperson, based in Suva.

They said to date, no positive cases have been detected in the outer islands.

Omicron is the suspected variant in circulation, swabs are to be sent overseas for testing to confirm that.

Out of the tests taken so far, on average 29 per cent of daily tests have come back positive.

The vaccination rate is high, 97 per cent of Tuvalu’s eligible population aged 5 and over have received “at least” two Covid-19 vaccine doses and 81 per cent have received at least one booster shot, according to the World Health Organisation.