Peter Vaela’a, 43, Vaoala

“As a local resident of Samoa, we don’t make the decisions but I just want the best for our country and for the safety of our people. As we are aware that lives are taken daily by the Covid-19 pandemic in the world.  The consideration for Samoa to open a travel bubble with New Zealand should never be done.  Even if local residents who are in overseas countries want to travel to Samoa let us put that to a stop. The pandemic can get devastate Samoa’s population within a week so therefore our borders must remain closed.”

Sauni Niumata, 50, Aleisa

“The new Government should look deeper at ways that can maintain our economy from within our country and not to look into opening a travel bubble with New Zealand. Our country has been COVID-19 free due to restrictions of borders and we are still living without struggling. We must continue to pray to God and he will give us the right answer, but if we do what we desire on our own it will cause failure.”

Ipu Afuvai Lotufa’afetai, 56, Saleimoa

“As the new Government is looking into opening a travel bubble with New Zealand it should hold back a little because of the Covid-19 pandemic as we can see that Fiji is greatly affected by the pandemic. We should wait until the whole world is COVID-19 free, Samoa is a small country and no doubt our population can be cleared out by the pandemic within a week. Our new Government must not look into opening a travel bubble.”

Lauano Ah Ching, 56, Moamoa

“The new Government has changed a lot of state of emergency orders which are good changes. With the opening of a travel bubble with New Zealand, I am not sure if it’s a good idea. If that will ever happen, everyone who travels  to Samoa must be in quarantine for 2 weeks and to ensure they are Covid free before being released. But it will be best for our economy a lot of businesses shut down when borders closed, so by opening borders to New Zealand we will have more tourists on the island which will benefit our local sellers.”

Alofa Isaia, 24, Afega

“COVID-19 is our main concern as a lot of people have been killed by this pandemic, a lot of our people who are residing in overseas countries want to travel back to Samoa. Our country has been COVID free under the rule of Human Rights Protection Party due to restrictions of borders but with our new Government and how they are already planning otherwise it is not a good idea. As our new Government is looking into opening a travel bubble with New Zealand, not everyone in our country is fully vaccinated. So opening up a travel bubble with New Zealand will potentially cause so much damage to our country and it can even lead to lives being taken by the COVID pandemic.”

Peia Vaifale, 57, Leauvaa

“The new state of emergency orders by the F.A.S.T. party are good but I am against the opening of the travel bubble . I just pray and hope our country will still be COVID-free and for our new Government to protect our country.”