Fiji is welcoming back travellers as COVID cases on its islands dissipate as quickly as they came.
And doctors who worked through the peak of the country's Delta outbreak last year say they’re glad to see the back of it.
Those doctors gave Newshub a look behind the scenes at one of their hospitals and shared how they survived the pandemic.
'The cases just kept on coming'
Outside Mohammad Imtishal's office at Nadi Hospital, there's a never-ending number of ailments - even on a quiet Sunday.
"From morning 8am to 3pm we’ve seen 180 - that’s just in outpatient," said Dr Imtishal, Nadi Hospital's principal medical officer.
And he’ll see hundreds more - but those queues of patients come as a welcome relief.
"Now we have general wards back and we have fewer COVID cases, more general ward patients," Dr Imtishal told Newshub.
At the peak of Fiji’s Delta outbreak, hospitals were overloaded - forcing the need for makeshift maternity wards on shipping vessels.
More than 800 COVID patients have died in Fiji.
"Last year we had a sudden rise of cases and most of the cases just kept on coming, kept on coming and we were actually struggling for space in the hospital," Dr Imtishal said.
The team made the call to merge wards to make space for the increasing number of patients with the Delta variant.
Nursing supervisor Nasemoon Khan was tasked with overseeing their care.
"The place where we’re standing and the other side is our isolation ward itself with positive COVID patients," Khan told Newshub.
A plastic sheet is all that separates us from those who've tested positive with COVID.
The ward was a home away from home for Khan - staff had to quarantine with patients to prevent community transmission. They were unable to leave the hospital or visit their loved ones.
Fiji's Delta outbreak peaked in July with almost 2000 cases per day. There was a brief Omicron surge in early January and now there are just 150 reported active COVID cases.
Just a few months ago entire wards were converted to cope with rising COVID numbers, now there's just a handful of them in the hospital's isolation unit.
And for the team at Nadi Hospital, it's back to business as usual
"We're able to go back home," Khan said. "No need to quarantine unless you test positive and then it's seven days, and that's it."
