Samoa Extends Lockdown by 24 Hours to 6pm Friday 28 January
Samoa’s nation-wide lockdown has been extended for a further 24 hours to 6pm Friday 28 January 2022 to allow the Ministry of Health to finalise covid-19 test results for all of those in quarantine.
The announcement was made by Samoa Prime Minister Hon Fiame Naomi Mataafa, who also assured the country that the number of positive cases for Samoa remains at 26.
“Twenty one of these cases are passengers who arrived into Samoa from Australia last week on Wednesday 19th January 2022 with five cases comprising nurses who are monitoring the 21 positive cases all in quarantine at Motootua Hospital”.
“All of them are well and remain asymptomatic as of this afternoon,” assures the Prime Minister.
The extension is to allow for follow up tests for all of those in quarantine, scheduled to be conducted on Thursday, (tomorrow) and the results should be confirmed by late afternoon tomorrow or early Friday morning, stated Fiame.
‘In this regard Cabinet considered and approved this afternoon the extension of the nation-wide lockdown for another 24 hours beginning at 6pm tomorrow Thursday 27th January to 6pm Friday 28th January 2022.
A temporary opening from 8am to 2pm Thursday will allow families to replenish necessities from shops, within their allocated zones. Shops, supermarkets, pharmacies, cashpower outlets, banks and money transfer operators are among businesses declared as essential services during temporary opening hours.
The Prime Minister said tests to determine the variant of Samoa’s positive cases is expected to be received from New Zealand over the next few days.
“We will also revisit the alert levels, especially level 2 and level 3, and will announce the next steps of actions to be taken in due time”.
The Prime Minister thanked Samoa for their continued prayers and support at this time.
Samoa has been on lockdown since Saturday 22 January and the government continues to monitor the covid-19 situation, taking no chances for a community outbreak.
Samoa has remained covid free with no community cases since the global pandemic took the work by storm two years ago. Of all eligible adults, 86 percent of Samoa are fully vaccinated, with 96% having had their first dose. Vaccination for children 12 to 17 years was rolled out late last year through schools before the Christmas break.
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