11 Aug 2021

Samoa launches door-to-door covid vax-drive

9:45 am on 11 August 2021

The Samoa government is launching a country-wide door-to-door mass vaccination campaign for Covid-19 today.

The initiative was announced in public notices yesterday by the Ministry of Health.

A nurse administers a shot during the mass vaccination campaign

A nurse administers a shot during the mass vaccination campaign Photo: Samoa Govt / Logan Church

Families with members who have not been immunised are being asked to tie any red coloured material in front of their homes to indicate to officials they need vaccinations.

"The red flags/material will make it easy for the vaccinating teams to identify households for vaccination," said the message, employing the same strategy used for the 2019 measles epidemic.

The "Do It For Samoa" campaign aims to administer the vaccine to all eligible residents in the country.

Last week, the National Emergency Operations Committee announced that more than half of the eligible population had received their first dose and 22 percent had been fully vaccinated.

Director General of Health Leausa Dr Take Naseri said then that they have more vaccine doses than the eligible numbers of people.

He added their biggest problem is getting all the people vaccinated before the vaccines' use-by dates.

Most of the available vaccines will expire by October 2021 according to Leausa.