By Staff Writer
Recent travellers are feeling the relief of shorter quarantine stays by arriving into Samoa fully vaccinated from the COVID-19 virus.
Non-vaccinated arrivals face a mandatory isolation of 3-weeks whereas those fully vaccinated are held for only a week or so.
The security arrangement has benefitted vaccinated visitors from American Samoa for a while now.
“The one week stay is only a precaution for travellers already fully vaccinated before they fly into Samoa,” Director General of Health, Leausa Dr. Take Naseri clarified.
“We have been doing this for close to a month now to arrivals from American Samoa already vaccinated but we still have to test them before letting them go.”
Leausa confirmed the same arrangement extended to those entering from New Zealand and other destinations.
He said the 7 days quarantine hold-up or less, depends on looking at where the traveller is from and what the risks are.
“American Samoa did have one reported historic case but it is not infectious so we consider that in our assessment for early release.
“New Zealand and Fiji have had problems with community transmissions so we looked into that as well.”
A group of 7 vaccinated travellers held in precautionary isolation for a week were the most recent ones to be released last Friday.
Returning Chief Justice Satui Simativa Perese was among them.
“The CJ was fully vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine in New Zealand before he travelled to Samoa,” Leausa re-affirmed.
The pressure on prolonged isolated health protection quarantine for travellers into Samoa is expected to continue to ease, with more and more fully vaccinated arrivals.
Samoa has remained virtually safe from the global spread of the coronavirus pandemic with strict border control health restrictions that involved managed isolation for all new arrivals.
There have been a few ‘historic cases’ of virus carriers infected and treated outside Samoa who were detected on arrival.
Health alarms bells were set off when a young male traveler who arrived from the US was tested positive for a live virus.
He was an asymptomatic carrier who travelled undetected until the virus showed up on his arrival in Samoa.
Since then there has been no new detected threats in Samoa of arriving travellers infected with the virus.
While the frontline health security measures has held up well for Samoa the global death toll was recently reported at 3 million lives and still counting.