SUVA, April 22 (Xinhua) -- Samoa has tightened its travel restrictions as the COVID-19 cases continue to rise, while another Pacific island country Vanuatu has lifted a curfew in Efate and its offshore islands.
The country's health ministry has issued a revised travel advisory, urging all incoming travellers to have their booster jobs before arrival as Samoa's total COVID-19 has been approaching 7,000, according to the newspaper Samoa Observer on Friday.
According to the latest advisory, which took effect on Thursday, Samoa's borders remain closed to all travellers except returning residents and essential workers.
Samoa reported its first confirmed case of COVID-19 in February last year, and the island nation has recorded 13 COVID-19 related deaths.
On Tuesday, Samoa's Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata'afa announced that the whole country will remain on Alert Level 2 for the next two weeks until May 3.
Meanwhile, in another South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu, the government announced on Friday the lift of the curfew in Efate and its offshore islands.
Under the latest Declaration of Public Emergency Order, travellers from the countries such as Fiji, Australia and New Zealand must be put under quarantine for three days at a hotel or at a community isolation and quarantine facility if they can not afford a hotel and be subject to rapid antigen tests (RATs) during the three-day quarantine period.
Travellers transiting from the countries or continents outside Australia and New Zealand, such as Africa, Asia, Europe, America or other Pacific island countries, must be quarantined at a hotel for seven days and be subject to a RAT.
Vanuatu has reported 6,537 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 12 deaths. ■