The Opposition Human Rights Protection Party has welcomed the release of the $10million dollar grant as per the Asian Development Bank release of 25 April 2022.
The grant is provided under its Pacific Resilience Program to assist with the Samoa Government’s response to COVID-19 community transmission.
Samoa is a founding member of the ADB.
The HRPP Leader Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi expressed appreciation for this timely assistance from the ADB but also offered some timely advice for the government.
“There is a need for more timely situational reports on the developments of the government efforts in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. The country needs to know the full extent of what we are facing.”
The veteran politician said he is worried at conflicting reports, especially the total number of Samoans who have passed away on covid related causes.
He pointed out that the press release from ADB of the 25 April, 2022, quotes out of date information.
“Our donor agencies deserve to be given up to date data to help them make important decisions on assistance to help us deal with problems we are facing”.
Party Secretary Lealailepule Rimoni Aiafi said there are reliable media reports that more than 40 bodies are at the Tupua Tamasese Meaole hospital morgue, mostly in body bags.
“When bodies are stored in body bags, then there is reason to believe these poor people have not died of natural ailments. If these people have indeed died from covid related problems, the people need to know and we should not be fed piecemeal information,” said Lealailepule.
“There are unusually too many deaths in the villages and many of them are not reported by the families”.
The Secretary urged the people responsible to make sure information is released on a more timely basis and that the information is correct and up to date.
“We are facing life and death situations here and if we are not given up to date and correct information to push and entice people to get vaccinated, then we will lose more.”