Samoa's government is to enforce a two-day national lockdown this week as it ramps up its public COVID-19 vaccination programme.
The expiry date for its stock of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine is fast approaching and people are still dragging their feet on getting vaccinated.
The Ministry of Health is instructing people to stay home on Thursday and Friday as its roving teams vaccinate every eligible person in each household.
As of Friday, over 99,000 people or 84.4 per cent of the eligible population had received the first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine, while just over 50,000 had received both doses, according to Ministry of Health data.
The two-day campaign seeks to boost immunisation coverage against the COVID-19 virus to 99 per cent of the eligible population.
The last time the country went into complete lockdown was during the 2019 measles epidemic in order to roll out a two day mass immunisation programme.
Photo file Ministry of Health Caption: COVID-19 vaccination rollout in Samoa