Canceled travels for Samoans in New Zealand wishing to spend the holidays with families in Samoa did not impress top officials of the National Emergency Operations Centre, NEOC.
There were strained, agonized expressions when the media reports in New Zealand came up.
Since the emergency lockdown brought international travel at the borders to a standstill last March, the only people allowed into the country were stranded Samoans.
Most were coming in from New Zealand and must meet health security requirements against the coronavirus pandemic before they are cleared to return.
The only inbound travels allowed to bring in outsiders are repatriation flights approved by Government at the recommendation of NEOC.
Travellers leaving from Samoa are stranded foreign citizens or those seeking medical treatment in New Zealand.
Media reports from New Zealand quoted the frustration by several prominent residents with Samoan heritage, forced by the pandemic to cancel holiday trips to be with families during the festive season.
A Radio Samoa host, Savea Peseta Al Harrington Lavea, told the New Zealand media “it was a tough pill to swallow, but avoiding travel was the safest option.”
“It’s a sickening feeling, you want to be with your family, but then you have to take precautions and relevant steps in terms of protecting your health and your well-being before going back home,” Harrington said.
“There’s no point of going back home and taking the disease to your whole family.”
The chair of the Samoa Business Network, John Loau, reportedly noticed the anxiety among the wider Samoan Community around New Zealand.
He told the New Zealand media that the outcome of the measles outbreak last year was still raw in many people’s minds, more so since it was from someone who traveled to the island.
“We saw from abroad the impact that just one individual had right across the island,” Loau said.
“We’re apprehensive as a community that we may inadvertently export this virus to Samoa and overwhelm the system there.”
The danger is real according to research out of Canterbury University in September showed Pasifika had twice as high a chance of dying from Covid-19 than European New Zealanders.
In some parts of the United States, Pacific Islanders were being hospitalised at up to ten times the rate of other ethnicities.
While not quite as worried, Pacific Leadership Forum chair Teleiai Edwin Puni was concerned about Samoa’s ability to react to an outbreak.
Many Pacific nations already have fragile public health systems and there is worry that an outbreak could quickly prove overwhelming.
He praised the measures the government had taken so far, but said the 2019 measles outbreak was an indication of how bad things could go if the virus was to escape quarantine facilities.
“The concern is how tight the quarantine is,” Puni said. “Now it’s inside Samoa it’s about how to keep it from spreading to the community. Everyone is hoping it will remain air-tight.”
The second of the last two repatriation flights allowed to fly in passengers from New Zealand is due to land at Faleolo International Airport tomorrow, Monday, 7 December 2020.
The first landed on Friday.
