The Prime Minister, Tuilaepa Dr. Sailele Malielegaoi, left his residence at Ululoloa at 9.30am Thursday to begin a day of inspecting the door-to-door mass vaccination for which the nation has been shutdown. 

Outside his gate a red lavalava hangs from the fence – a sign that a member of his household had not been immunised. 

Tuilaepa together with other Cabinet Ministers received his vaccination on Wednesday the day before the two-day national shutdown and stepping up of the mass vaccination drive began. 

At a press conference on Thursday afternoon, he explained the red cloth was there for his nephew, who just arrived from Australia and had not been vaccinated.

During his inspection, the Prime Minister made a quick stop in his village where a vaccination mobile team was administering vaccination to the families in the area. 

Tuilaepa was seen meeting the mobile team and members from the families in Ululoloa and held a brief  conversation with vaccination team leaders, Faumuina Sikuka from the Ministry of Commerce Industry and Labour and Togagae Iakopo Falaniko.

According to Faumuina, about sixty individuals in the area had already been vaccinated at around 10 am on Thursday. 

He said a green sticker was being placed in front of some family homes to indicate that everyone have received their vaccination. For those who have not they are asked to leave the red cloth on their fence so that the vaccination team can return later. 

Asked why some families still have red cloths on their fence despite the team being to their doors, Faumuina explained there are members from those families that have left the household when the team visited.  

After the quick stop in Ululoloa, Tuilaepa’s next stop was at the Data Centre in front of the Government building. 

The data unit is the central repository for all data from all mobile vaccination teams where it is streamed in realtime. 

At the time the Prime Minister arrived at the data centre there had already been 865 people immunised: 349 of them being female and 516 males.  

The door-to-door vaccination campaign is for two days, Thursday and Friday this week where members of the public are asked to stay home so they can get vaccinated.    

Samoa has gone into a shutdown of most Government ministries and the private sector to facilitate the campaign.