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Samoa shutting down all services as death toll rises

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Wed, 4 Dec 2019, 5:52PM
People line up to get vaccinated. (Photo / Supplied)

Samoa shutting down all services as death toll rises

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Wed, 4 Dec 2019, 5:52PM

Samoa's measles death toll continues to climb. 

60 people have now died in the outbreak, with 171 new cases reported in the past 24 hours.

Hospital admissions include 20 critically ill children and three pregnant women.

Officials estimate nearly three-quarters of kids aged six months to four years are vaccinated, as well as 86 percent of five to sixteen year olds.

Samoa Observer journalist Sapeer Mayron told Heather du Plessis-Allan many people are still vulnerable.

She says about 100,000 still need vaccinating.

"We still need to vaccinate around 30 per cent of infants and children, around 14 per cent of children aged 5 to 19, another 20 per cent of women, and half of everyone else, so there's a fair way to go."

Samoan families needing vaccinations have been asked to hang red flags outside their home in a last-gasp effort to control the measles epidemic.

The country's effectively shutting down for two days this week, with all non-essential businesses and government services closing, and transport banned.

Public servants will be working alongside local and foreign health workers giving vaccinations.

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