The Police Commissioner, Fuiavaili’ili Egon Keil, has again urged members of the public to work with the Government to deal with the deadly measles epidemic.

He wants everyone to stay home during the lockdown hours from 7am to 5pm so that the mass vaccination campaign is not interrupted.

“We are still seeing cars on the roads," Fuiava said. 

"Although there are people that have to be on the road for medical reasons and are travelling, anyone that does not need to be on the road to please remain indoors."

The Police Commissioner also noted that there are still far too many people walking around unnecessarily.

He said the Police operation has been on full manpower since the declaration of state of emergency started with more than 500 police officers working around the clock. 

“The essence of the whole thing is that we are not here to arrest anyone. The last thing we want is to arrest anyone and we don’t want to do that,” he said. 

The mass vaccination across the country is carried out by health officials with the assistance of public servants for Thursday and Friday.

According to the Commissioner the first few hours of the curfew went smoothly.

The Police Officers are on the road to remind the public about the curfew and to warn drivers to remain at their respective residences, until the curfew is over. 

He called on the public to work together with the police to assure the mass vaccination is successful. 

According to the Police official facebook page, since the Proclamation of Emergency into the measles outbreak two weeks ago in Samoa, the Police has been working around the clock to support our National Emergency Operation Center's efforts by providing security at all stationary and mobile clinics in Upolu and Savaii. 

“Our mission is to assist and support emergency service agencies and provide security to all of Samoa.

“The S.P.S. has been providing security to not only to medical clinics and facilities, but also to all government and volunteer workers at over 40 plus clinic sites, strategically placed at various locations in Samoa.” 

They also deployed the Nafanua II on three crucial humanitarian sails to American Samoa to drop off numerous commercial type oxygen tanks for filling and pick up filled oxygen tanks from American Samoa as requested by the Ministry of Health. 

“The S.P.S. acknowledges and sends a deep gratitude to the Government of Australia for the timely gifting of the Nafanua II, which has enabled us to do our job and ultimately mitigate complications sustained by those inflicted by the epidemic.”