Covid-19 Pacific: New Zealand sends thousands of RATs, vaccines to virus-stricken Samoa

The New Zealand Government has sent thousands of rapid antigen test kits, 100,000-plus Covid vaccination doses for adults and children, and technical support help Samoa battle its Covid community outbreak.

A Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson said New Zealand has responded to an official request from Samoa.

"New Zealand has donated 24,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Samoa via the Covax mechanism, and 123,670 doses of the Pfizer vaccine, which includes 40,000 paediatric doses," the spokesperson said.

"We have provided technical support for vaccine rollout through the Polynesian Health Corridors programme. We have also donated 49,460 RATs.

"New Zealand has received one formal request for support from the Government of Samoa since last week's positive case. This is for rapid antigen tests (RATs) to support Samoa's outbreak response. Officials are urgently working to meet this request."

Another 126 community cases of Covid were reported yesterday - taking the total number of cases to 748 detected since Covid in the community was discovered on March 17.

As of yesterday, 14,400 RATs had been administered.

"The tests could not have been made possible and it's all fa'afetai, fa'afetai, fa'afetai tele lava (huge thanks) to the New Zealand Government for donating the test kits," the Samoan Government wrote on its Facebook page.

"The public should not to take for granted the kind and generous humanitarian assistance by Samoa's development partners which donated the rapid test kits."

Samoa was one of the last countries in the world to discover Covid in the community.
While there are enough RAT tests to go around for everyone, health authorities are disappointed by the conduct of some of its citizens.

"Health findings show that a substantial number of residents have deliberately taken not one but up to five separate tests in different locations, contributing to crowding conditions disregarding the 2m social distance protocol."

The Samoan Government is investigating options should Covid start to run rampant.
"We have been assured by our medical team that the rapid tests are designed for people who have shown symptoms, and the test should be administered when these symptoms show up," Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mataafa told the Savali Newspaper.

She said the Covid outbreak did not warrant an all-out-mass vaccination drive, as happened with the 2019 measles outbreak in Samoa.

They may instead run a house-to-house campaign by health teams aided by village pulenuu (heads) and government officials.

Fiji

Fiji has recorded 13 new cases of COVID-19 taking the total number of current active cases to 40.

The high vaccination rate of Fiji, 99.9% first dose and 93.6% second dose is helping keep the Covid positive cases low.

Kiribati

Kiribati recorded 3 new cases on Thursday taking their 14day average to 7 and a total number of Covid cases from March 10-23 to 70.