Members of Parliament have led the way in promoting Samoa’s booster vaccination roll out.
During the break of a Parliamentary sitting this week, a team from the Ministry of Health administered boosters for all Parliamentarians and government CEOs, as well as staff of the Legislative Assembly.
Speaker of the House, Papalii Lio Oloipola Taeu Masipau made the announcement at the start of Parliament in the morning.
“We ought to be seen taking the lead on this important initiative being driven by our Ministry of Health,” he stated in Parliament. “I believe our nation will support our Government’s vaccination programme through the Ministry of the Health, when they see that we are leading the way”.
Honourable Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mataafa was among the first to receive the booster dose.
The booster vaccination rollout for Samoa has been open for the past week, to those who have completed two doses of Covid-19 .
To date, 97.3% of Samoa’s eligible adult population have received their first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine while 89.3% have been fully vaccinated according to a Ministry of Health’s latest update. The rollout of Pfizer vaccines for ages 12 to 17 as well as pregnant and lactating mothers has reached over 21,000 double vaxxed.
Last week Samoa received 10,000 doses of Pfizer vaccines from the Government of New Zealand, as announced by NZ Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nanaia Mahuta and Associate Health Minister Aupito William Sio.
To date New Zealand has donated total of 94,000 vaccine donations for Samoa.
Two weeks ago the Government of Australia sent an Australian Defence Force flight to deliver an additional 10,000 doses of the Australian-manufactured AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, arriving into Faleolo Airport just as Samoa had run out of supplies.
Last July Australia had also sent a shipment of 10,000 Covid19 AstraZeneca vaccines in efforts to avoid any delay to Samoa’s immunisation roll out.
Australia has shared more than 60,000 doses with Samoa to date, in addition to an investment of AUD$130 million to the COVAX facility.
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