Samoa Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata’afa has told Parliament that her government is on top of efforts to contain the spread of coronavirus.
She says the current Alert Level 2 imposed on January 29 for a fortnight, is to ensure the people of Samoa are prepared to deal with an actual community transmission.
Many questions had been raised in Parliament about how a flight from Australia had brought people affected with coronavirus.
Fiame explained that the flight from Brisbane, Australia January 19 was a flight set up by the Australian Government under their Pacific Flights Program to uplift passengers under the seasonal workers scheme.
She said it was a chance to bring some Samoan residents who had been wanting to return and that officials had gone through the proper preventive processes put in place by the Ministry of Health.
A total of 261 passengers had originally registered to travel to Samoa but Fiame said by the time the flight left only 73 were on board.
She said some could not get proper travel documents in time, others were unable to secure airfares and some had changed travel plans.
Commenting on claims that some of the passengers traveled to Samoa for a funeral, Fiame said if this happened it was the result of false declarations on travel applications.
She said a negative Covid test was one of the requirements for the flight.
Of the 73 passengers that arrived on flight QS115, 25 have tested positive and are in controlled isolation wards at the Tupua Tamasese Meaole Hospital.
Nine children under 12 years also traveled on the flight and four of them have tested positive.
Five frontline nurses caring for the positive cases also tested positive and have volunteered to remain in the special wards and continue to care for the isolated patients.
Fiame told parliament that all 30 positive cases in isolation are asymptomatic.
“The current orange alert level for two weeks is for us to get ready and prepare and get used to dealing with this in the event of a community transmission,” she said.
