So far, Samoa has been doing pretty well, being one of the few countries left without any coronavirus cases. Officials believe that their recent encounter with the measles outbreak may have prepared them for this pandemic.
A big part of overcoming the outbreak was the contribution of Fonoifafo McFarland-Seumanu, the reigning Miss Samoa. When she first won her title as Miss Samoa in 2019, the country was soon faced with a deadly onset of measles. It reportedly killed almost 6,000 people in a small population of 200,000. Regrettably, most of the casualties had been infants.
During the measles epidemic, a lockdown was enforced to carry out a mass immunization program. Being a specialist public health nurse, Fono personally volunteered to help in the administration of the vaccines.
She became part of a house-to-house campaign to keep children vaccinated against the fatal disease. With today's pandemic, she is also fighting to keep residents safe by promoting social distancing and staying at home on her social media accounts.
She accounts that her country's previous encounter with measles has helped her fellow countrymen in their global response to coronavirus. Officials from the Ministry of Health in Samoa admit that the measles crisis shook up the country's healthcare system. Furthermore, they claim that it caused the government to take a more in-depth look at its public health care system.
Zero Coronavirus Cases in Samoa
In an interview with the director-general of health at the Samoan Ministry of Health, Take Naseri, told Daily Mail that after the measles outbreak swept the lives of many people, they are not taking the coronavirus threat lightly.
Critics say it was a vital blow to strengthen the system which has caused some of the earliest rigid travel restrictions to prevent the virus from entering the island. In January, officials set up a quarantine site at Faleolo hospital next to the country's sole international airport.
Starting February, anyone travelling from China or Hong Kong was not admitted into Samoa unless they had been quarantined for two weeks at their last port of call. The list of countries grew longer as the virus spread. Due to strict rules, some passengers were even turned back upon arrival.
In March, the country went into a state of emergency and restricted public or private gatherings of more than five people. Later on, international travel was also halted.
According to Nicola Hawley, an assistant professor of Epidemiology at Yale School of Public Health, Samoa's almost 'accidental preparedness' came at a considerable cost to the nation. She added that only a handful of countries have such recent experience with a crisis like that.
A Good Head on Her Shoulders, Miss Samoa Fights for Vaccination Among Children
The 24-year-old beauty queen had already been vocal about the importance of vaccination even before the measles outbreak started in 2019. She had previously cautioned parents that the numbers of children infected with measles would continue to rise if they didn't take action.
Fonoifafo, fondly called "Fono", had been born and brought up in New Zealand by her Samoan parents, her father Lemmy a pastor, and her mother Nancy, a mental health worker.
After she won the Miss Samoa title in September 2019, she moved to Samoa from New Zealand and went on to win Miss Pacific Islands in November in Papua New Guinea. When she landed back in Samoa, she learned that the government appealed for international medical teams to help since they were short of vaccinators.
Luckily, being a nurse, she was licensed to administer the life-saving jabs. She claims that a lot of the families reached out to her and thanked her for bringing back positive news to our country.
Recently in her social media accounts, she has asked locals to perform the Samoan traditional dance Siva on TikTok as a challenge to give them something to do, with the hashtag #passthesiva.
Fono says that she is glad and fortunate to have a platform to get her messages across. She adds that this allows her to "really make noise" around what's important.
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