An 11-month old baby is among six new COVID-19 deaths announced by the Fijian government overnight.
The island nation currently has 21,109 active cases - one in every 43 Fijians - after adding another 1163 in the 24 hours to 8am Friday, the Ministry of Health and Medical Services said late on Friday night. There have been 28,590 cases since April.
Ten new deaths were reported overall amongst COVID-19 patients, but four ruled as being due to preexisting conditions, not the virus itself.
Of the six deaths attributed to COVID-19, one was an 11-month-old infant from Delaivalelevu, in the country's southeast, who died on July 19.
"He was brought to CWM Hospital where he was assessed by the paediatric specialist team to be in severe respiratory distress," health officials said.
"He was reported by his family to have had a fever and fast breathing at home for three days before coming to the hospital. Sadly, his condition worsened in the hospital and he died on the same day.
"He was not vaccinated; he was not in the target population of people 18 years and over that are eligible to receive the vaccine."
The others were aged 80, 78, 61, 60 and 53. None of those who died were vaccinated.
There have now been 233 deaths due to COVID-19 in Fiji, 231 of them during the current outbreak. Another 123 COVID-19 patients have died from preexisting causes.
So far 81 percent of Fijian adults have received their first dose of a vaccine, and 22.5 percent their second.
