Samoa’s is now on alert level 3 and locked down will start at 6pm for the next 48 hours.
This is in light of the new development the of COVID-19 cases with five additional cases confirmed.
This was announced by Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata’afa when she addressed the nation today, following a Cabinet meeting.
As reported earlier, there is a total of 15 new confirmed cases of passengers that arrived in the Country on Wednesday.
Lockdown means everyone stays home, all activities including church, schools, bars, restaurants, large gathers will not be allowed.
Only essential workers will be allowed on the main road.
An emergency NEOC meeting was held last night and recommended for a lockdown.
Cabinet moved to cancel the repatriation flight from New Zealand scheduled for today and said they are looking at suspending repatriation flights from Australia, in light of the new developments of the coronavirus in Samoa.
On Friday more than 200 frontliners working at the Airport to service the repatriation flights from Australia underwent testing by the Ministry of Health.
The NEOC is awaiting the results. Afterwards they were sent home to be self isolated.
In its latest statement, NEOC says Samoa will move to Level 3 (RED) commencing at 6pm today.
The measures in place for Level 3 are;
- State of Emergency Restrictions
- Everyone stays home
- Complete border closure
- Activation of COVID-19 Zoning depending on location of community case identified
- Complete lockdown of zone areas
- Ban all mass gatherings
- School closure
- Closure of all services (public and private) except for essential and emergency services
- Quarantine of front line and support staff
- No inter island travel.
The country will be on complete lockdown for the next 48 hours (6pm Saturday January 22, 2022-6pm Monday 24, 2022. Authorized personnel and vehicles are allowed to mobilize to deliver essential services and to respond to emergencies.
The public is liable for penalty under the State of Emergency Orders and relevant laws of Samoa.
