An alliance of Pacific organisations in New Zealand says it is monitoring Samoa’s current COVID-19 crisis and believes Kiwis with Samoan heritage can help families back home.

The Pacific Leadership Forum (P.L.F.), which is an assembly of Pacific organisations and leaders, also said it believes the pandemic experience of Aotearoa-based Samoans can help their families back home overcome their challenges during the current outbreak of COVID-19 community cases.

P.L.F. Chairman Teleiai Edwin Puni told the Samoa Observer that they are monitoring the public health crisis in Samoa and he believes there are avenues for Samoans living in New Zealand to assist families.

He said Pacific families in New Zealand also had to overcome an outbreak of the Omicron variant with the P.L.F. leading the way in partnership with the churches.

"With the Omicron outbreak the P.L.F. has assisted with the distribution of RATs [Rapid Antigen Test] supplies to Pacific churches and communities as another layer of defence in minimising the spread of omicron," he said. "At the same time the P.L.F. is also monitoring the COVID-19 outbreak in the island [nations] including Samoa.

"The COVID-19 experience of Samoans in New Zealand will definitely help families back in Samoa deal with the outbreak and prepare against social and economic impact."

While Teleiai acknowledged that COVID-19 is real and has a lasting impact on the person, he emphasised that getting fully vaccinated is the answer.

"The best protection is for people to get fully vaccinated," he said. "Everyone needs to adapt fast in living with COVID restrictions as the new norm."

According to Teleiai as of March 28 over 118,000 Samoans in New Zealand have received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine with over 116,000 fully vaccinated. And over 57,000 Samoans in New Zealand have received their booster shot.

Teleiai added that about 20,000 RATs were distributed through the P.L.F. to the Samoan communities in New Zealand.

"There are a lot of requests from churches in particular," he said. "RATs are available at testing sites at no cost to the public. 

“A number of Pacific service providers are also giving out RATs to community groups including churches.”

Data provided by Samoa’s Ministry of Health (M.O.H.) through the Government Press Secretariat at 4am Thursday reported 172 new community cases to push the total number of COVID-19 cases to 1,665. Upolu accounts for 97 per cent of community cases with 3 per cent in Savai'i as at 2pm Wednesday 30 March 2022. There are still no community cases recorded for the islands of Manono-Tai and Apolima-Tai.