220 New Cases in Past 24 Hours – Samoa’s Community Case Count Hits 467

Wednesday 23 March 2022, Apia Samoa. The Ministry of Health has confirmed 220 new community cases were recorded in the last 24hrs. This brings the total number of community cases detected since Thursday 17^th March 2022 to 467 with 454 cases confirmed in Upolu and 13 active cases in Savaii.

The Ministry has not identified clusters of cases in any particular location other than recordings for each island. The islands of Manono and Apolima remain covid-free with no active cases recorded so far. The positive cases have hit the age group between 15 and 29 years of age. The analysis of Tuesday’s recorded cases has not yet been made available, however, Monday’s numbers showed the three age groups of 15-19, 20-24 and 25-29 recording 49% of total cases (121/247*100).

A total of 3,313 Rapid Antigen Tests (RATs) were administered in the last 24 hours – 2,507 in Upolu and 806 in Savaii. So far since the outbreak, an total of 11,588 RATs have been conducted. In an interview with the government press secretariat on Monday, Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mataafa stated there were over 240,000 RATS in Samoa, enough to cover the population twice over. As has been the message from Acting Director General Tagaloa Dr Robert Thompsen, the Prime Minister did also urge people to not come in for testing if they are have not been identified as a close contact, or asymptomatic.

Samoa has extended its Code Red Alert Level 3 lockdown for a further two weeks until Tuesday night, 5th of April, with movements for essential services permitted twice a week. Savaii will begin vaccinations for children between 5-11 years today, with stations set up as drive-through vaccination sites. Upolu’s vaccination sites for the Apia Urban areas remain, while rural areas are able to receive vaccinations at district hospitals across the island.

(0)