By Staff Writer
More than 200 stranded travelers in New Zealand will fly to Samoa in the next flight scheduled for 27 June 2020, as the pace picks up on the return of more than a thousand people on the waiting list.
RSE workers make up more than 800 of the travelers to be repatriated.
All have completed their working contracts and without income for support there is growing pressure to have them back in Samoa.
Just over 300 stranded travelers have been repatriated so far in the last three flights started since last May 2020.
Government has been extra careful in bringing them home with elaborate measures that included a long convoy of vans under police escort to place them in quarantine sites immediately on arrival.
The exercise is also costly for Samoa with most of the travelers quarantined in hotels for the mandatory 14 days at Government expense. A few are granted home isolation.
Confidence levels are up as New Zealand continued to enjoy a free run in the last 24 days with no new virus cases reported until this week on Tuesday.
Two women, one in her 30s and one in her 40s, arrived in Auckland from the UK on June 7, before they were granted an exemption to leave quarantine on June 13 and drive themselves to Wellington following the death of a family member.
The pair tested positive for Covid-19 after arriving in the capital. One of the women has been experiencing symptoms, while the other was symptom-free.
The new cases has been a major disappointment for New Zealand but it remains to be seen if this will have any impact on the move for a faster repatriation of Samoa’s stranded travelers.
There have been hints of frictions with the airline carrier in the timing of the flights for the repatriated arrivals.
The last flight at the weekend on Friday forced the health task force to rush the release of more than a 100 of the first quarantine group isolated in the hotel quarantine sites.
The earlier travelers had to be cleared out in time for the new arrivals to move in.
The group now in isolation is due to clear out on the same day the new group arrives next week on Friday 26 June 2020.
A compromise is reportedly reached for the delay of the new arrivals to the next day, 27 June, to allow for all the necessary health clearance and preparations work to be done.
Health restrictions are being eased up a little with as twice as many people as the last two arrivals put together coming next week.
More people maybe allowed home detention.
Much may depend on New Zealand maintaining its current virus free run despite the concern for the UK travellers who tested positive for the virus this week.
Hotel costs for the larger number of people arriving may be another pressure point mounting for Government to ease up on its quarantine restrictions.
The Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, defended in Parliament the tight security measures in place in response to increasing pressure for the lifting of the quarantine.
“We too want to allow more people to go through without quarantine but are very mindful of the risks of the virus re-surfacing after the people have cleared through,” PM Tuilaepa said at the start of this week’s House session.
Plans are in place for a quick and total shut down for Samoa as soon as any case of the coronavirus is confirmed in the country.
But the risks have dropped low enough so far to allow for the return of stranded Samoa home from neighbouring American Samoa.
Strict border travels have also been in place in American Samoa moreso with travellers travelling mainly from Hawaii or on transit from the US via the island state.
American Samoans stranded in Apia will start returning home on Thursday 18 June 2020.
A similar process of a medical certificate from a locally registered doctor to confirm they are free of the virus is required before travel.