By Martha Taumata Faavae
NEOC Chairman Agafili Shem Leo, is scratching his head at the latest count of 2000 stranded Samoans on the waiting list for flights home.
He is also not going to be surprised if by next week the waiting listing is up to 2500.
Agafili will have some relief when 300 stranded seafarers arrive home on the 22 of this month January 2021.
The repatriation flight is the first scheduled for the year for the seafarers who will make their journey home via New Zealand from Los Angele, US.
The seafarers were initially set to fly home last December before the flight was canceled after two returned Samoans were tested positive for the virus.
One was a seafarer and the other a 70-year-old man. Both were ‘historical cases’ who caught the coronavirus and were treated before they returned to Samoa.
NEOC is, however, keeping a very strict watch on the new arrivals this year with the new variant of the COVID-19 virus adding more complications.
There are 900 RSE Workers in New Zealand scheduled to follow behind the seafarers a few weeks later on the 12 February 2021.
The RSE workers group has completed their short-term contracts. A series of flights scheduled for the 5 and 26 March will fly them in.
Both groups and all who are to follow them into the country will have an extra week of isolation stay under new quarantine conditions.
Instead of 2 weeks it is now 3 weeks in response to the more contagious coronavirus new variant that is starting to spread in Europe and the US.
Chartered flights are also being arranged for outbound travellers and they are to fly out 600 RSE workers starting next week on the 7th January.
Four chartered flights are lined up with the last one to take off before the end of the month on 29 January 2021.