Only one nightclub has opened its doors to patrons after the Cabinet relaxed state of emergency (S.O.E.) orders that forced them to close for two months.

The ROSA nightclub and Bar Samoa was the only nightclub that opened on Wednesday after the amended S.O.E. orders were released early in the week.

ROSA nightclub General Manager, Faumuina Alexandra Mauli, told the Samoa Observer that they are grateful to be allowed to resume business.

"We’re tremendously grateful to the Government for hearing our cries, for allowing us to resume business and earn our income again, and we’re just really grateful and overjoyed," she said. "I had submitted a letter to the Chairman of the National Emergency Operations Centre as well as to Afioga Agafili. This was on the 12th May where I put through my request and then I was able to see them the following week which was with Agafili and I had a meeting with him." 

Faumuina said she was advised by Agafili that they were looking into those businesses affected by the lockdown to resume their operations again, considering that there were a lot of people who lost their jobs and didn't have income for that period of time. 

All their employees are back at work now after being put on leave over the closure period, though their working hours have been reduced.

"Our employees are all back now to work with reduced hours now that we open at 2pm instead of our usual opening time before the state of emergency which was at 9am," Faumuina added.

Fauimuina said they were queried numerous times on social media on whether they would reopen and their regular patrons were waiting for them to make the announcement of resuming operations.

When the Samoa Observer contacted other clubs including NXT (Edge Marina), Te Namo and Seana nightclub to check if they had resumed operations were unsuccessful, their staff were unsure when they would open. The Te Namo management were not available for comment.