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ASG plans shutdown for massive COVID-19 vaccine drive in Dec.

Dr. Aifili John Tufa
reporters@samoanews.com

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — As discussed at an earlier COVID Task Force meeting, ASG is planning a mass vaxx shut down of the territory in December, this would be similar to the campaign carried out in Samoa last month.  However, the shut down is facing a push back from the local bsiness community.  Details on this in Monday's issue.

In the meantine, during the weekly COVID-19 Task Force meeting DOH Epidemiologist Dr. Aifili Tufa provided the latest data on vax coverage highlighting the importance of vaccination as illustrated by Palau whose high vax coverage rates has allowed residents and visitors to travel without quarantine and no community transmission. “If we can achieve 90% in several months during the measles outbreak, we can do the same for COVID-19,” Dr. Tufa told the task force.

Current coverage: 69.7% (1 dose); 66.3% (fully vaccinated); 21.7% (no shots yet); 8.6% (under 5 yrs). The DoH estimates there are 6.200 children in the 5-11 age range.

In Samoa, Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mataafa announced on Friday that a second nationwide lockdown will be enforced next Friday to boost the vaccination campaign numbers.

The latest data released by the Ministry of Health, shows more than 115,000 people or 95 percent of eligible people have received their first dose of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine as of 11 November.

A total of 86,243 Samoans have been fully vaccinated which represents 70.5 per cent of the eligible population above 18 years-old.

The Pfizer vaccination which started two weeks ago targeting children 12-17 years-old has vaccinated 21,402 with their first doses.