The Pacific island nation of Samoa has closed its borders and prohibited public gatherings in a two-day nationwide lockdown after recording its first recognized regionally transmitted case of the coronavirus.
The 48-hour lockdown order, which started at midnight native time on Saturday, got here after officers mentioned they obtained a optimistic check consequence from a person who had taken a coronavirus check on Thursday as a requirement for departure from Samoa, Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata’afa mentioned in a press release on Thursday. The person is isolating, and the federal government is conducting contact tracing, she mentioned.
The prime minister mentioned the cupboard would proceed to evaluate the scenario all through the lockdown.
On Friday, the nation closed all faculties, bars, health facilities and nightclubs. Residents are required to hold their vaccination playing cards and put on masks in public. Beneath the lockdown, church buildings are closed and different companies should not permitted until they’re important.
The case reported on Thursday was believed to be the primary that the nation of about 200,000 individuals has discovered with none recognized path of transmission..
It’s not Samoa’s first lockdown this yr. The federal government imposed one in January after passengers who arrived on a flight from Brisbane, Australia, examined optimistic.
Samoa reported its first case in November 2020. On the time, it was one of many few international locations worldwide with no confirmed instances, a lot of which had been additionally island nations. Samoa has recorded 49 Covid instances and no deaths because the starting of the pandemic, in line with the Middle for Techniques Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins College. About 66 p.c of the nation’s inhabitants has been totally vaccinated, in line with the Our World in Information mission on the College of Oxford.
The virus has been spreading on different islands within the central South Pacific. Tonga, locked down final month amid an outbreak that began amongst support employees helping in its restoration efforts from a tsunami and volcanic eruption, and in latest weeks, American Samoa — one of many world’s final holdouts from the virus — noticed a surge in instances.
Nevertheless, some islands within the space have been spared: Nauru and Tuvalu haven’t reported any instances.