22 Nov 2019

Twenty reported dead as measles hits Samoa

From Checkpoint, 6:22 pm on 22 November 2019

Authorities in Samoa say 20 people have now died in the country's measles epidemic, as it tells all unvaccinated pregnant women to stay home and not go to work.

The Samoa Red Cross says it's administered 1,300 vaccines in the last two days.

The country's authorities have forbidden all people below the age of 19 are forbidden to board vessels travelling between the two main islands.

The Red Cross's Disaster Management Coordinator, Lauvao Isara Iose told RNZ reporter Alex Perrottet that people are lining up in their hundreds for vaccines.