The Ministry of Health (M.O.H.) Director General, Leausa Toleafoa Dr. Take Naseri, has confirmed that plans for more vaccination sites and teams for Savai’i have been finalised.

Speaking during a press conference on Saturday, the Ministry’s head said the teams will be mobilised and they will be sending more personnel to the big island.

"Everybody will be mobilized tomorrow, at the same time, Savai’i still continues its outreach programmes. All the district hospitals and fixed sites are open from 8:00am-8:00pm,” he said. “They still have outreach teams going out in villages in each district. We are going to beef that up and send more teams there and provide more fixed sites around the areas a lot of people go to, to make access easier."

The decision follows Leausa's short visit to the island last week to see first-hand how M.O.H. staff were responding to the epidemic in Savai’i. 

Currently, there are five designated vaccination centres in Savai’i. They include: Malietoa Tanumafili II Hospital at Tuasivi; Sataua District Hospital; Safotu District Hospital; Foailalo District Hospital; and the Community Health Center at Satupaitea.

A mass vaccination campaign is currently underway on the island of Upolu with pop-up clinics established and the population on the island directed to the different vaccination centres.

The MOH has confirmed a total of 1,797 measles cases which have been reported to the Disease Surveillance Team since Saturday when the outbreak started.  There were 153 cases recorded in the last 24 hours.

To date, 22 measles related deaths have been recorded, with two fatalities in the past 24 hours.

Majority of measles cases are in Upolu with about 92 per cent of the current measles admissions children, including 11 critically ill children in the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit.

There are currently 147 measles cases who are in-patients at all health facilities in the country.  Out of this 120 are at the Tupua Tamasese Meaole Hospital (TTMH), 1 at the Malietoa Tanumafili II Hospital (MTIIH), 2 at Sataua District Hospital, 1 at Foailalo District Hospital and 23 at the Leulumoega Rural District Hospital.