Good afternoon Samoa!
I wish to acknowledge with appreciation the extensive support of the whole country towards the call to heed and comply with the conditions of Alert Level 2 in the past two weeks as well as the week long national lockdown prior at Level 3.
I am pleased to say that even through the difficulties of the recent weeks, we have persevered to ensure that we remain protected from the harsh realities of the pandemic. We have also witnessed the uptake and buy in of all our communities of the new norms that will be part of our lives for a long time. Through a strong public health response, and for everyone to continue to protect themselves by getting vaccinated, maintaining physical distance, wearing a mask, avoiding poorly ventilated spaces, cleaning hands and following respiratory hygiene. We are indeed grateful for all your support, prayers and patience.
139 of our frontline workers that were quarantined were released this week, following a total of 7 tests, which all returned negative. The 48 passengers that never tested positive have been released. The number of people that had been affected remains at 31, some have fully recovered and returned negative tests with subsequent release while others are close to making full recovery. All remain asymptomatic. There is no evidence of community transmission.
To date our current vaccination rates are as follows:
18 + years 98.5% first dose 89% fully vaccinated
12-17 years 89.8% first dose 73.4% fully vaccinated
Overall 96.8% first dose 86.3% fully vaccinated
In terms of numbers; 145,077 people have received first doses and 129,200 are fully vaccinated.
A total of 2.012 booster injections have been done to date for 1,043 females and 969 males.. The vaccines roll out program for the age group 5-12 will begin as soon as the paediatric vaccine supplies arrive.
We are on target to achieve our vaccination rates.
After careful consideration of our current situation with regard to the revised Alert Levels matrix and the progressive achievement of our vaccination rates, Cabinet has decided to move our SOE Orders to Alert Level 1, colour coded Yellow. All operations shall continue as clearly stipulated in the SOE Orders for Alert Level 1.
Some of the main conditions that will now apply under Level 1 include:
- Opening of all schools
- Allowing public gatherings
- Extended opening hours for markets, supermarkets, small stores, petrol stations and pharmacies
- Extended opening hours for restaurants
- Opening of bars and night clubs between
- All local travel by sea and land are open
- Free movement of children under 12 years in public places
This changes under Alert Level 1 shall start from Friday, 11th February, 2022 at 6pm.
I wish you all a peaceful weekend ahead. May God bless us all
Soifua
