A senior auditor has expressed concern at the lack of information available on Samoa's preparations to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic and appealed to the authorities for effective leadership.

Su'a Rimoni Ah Chong believes that a lack of information is creating uncertainty and a perception that there may be a need for more competent and proactive leadership to steer the country forward, especially at the Ministry of Health and the National Emergency Operations Center. 

He said COVID-19 first emerged globally for over two years now and Samoa should have been well-prepared to deal with the virus. 

Most of the health requirements put in place by the health officials are not well implemented and enforced, he added.

The senior auditor said he believes Samoa's COVID-19 fight would've been easier if the leaders had "hammered" and enforced all basic health precautions to protect the people before the virus reached the country's shores. 

"You would see in the different shops in town, that people are not following the orders and measures put in place because they did not really enforced these actions beforehand," Su'a said. 

"They should have planned everything ahead so people are aware of what to do when the virus get to Samoa and what to do if we have a community case. 

"They announced that they are 100 per cent confident with what we have that we can deal with the virus.

"But even in bigger countries like New Zealand and Australia, I have never heard them announced such a thing as they also struggled to prevent the virus from affecting their population. 

"It all comes down to planning and keeping people well-informed and aware of what to do when things happen, they need to be consistent."

Su'a then applaud the move by the Samoa Medical Association (S.M.A.) to write to the Health Minister last week regarding the situation in Samoa. 

The Association – which represents most of Samoa’s doctors in public and private practice and has a membership of 110 – made the appeal for more community testing in a letter dated 29 January 2022 addressed to the Minister for Health, Valasi Tafito Selesele.

The S.M.A. appealed to the Government to consider undertaking more surveillance testing for COVID-19 in the community and also urged the Government to review the nation's COVID-19 Alert Levels.

"Its good to see the Medical Association has come to say something about the situation we are in now regarding the imported COVID-19 infections that are now causing uncertainty in our country," said Su'a.  

"The advice provided must be taken seriously by the Ministry of Health, the Minister of Health, Cabinet and the National Emergency Operations Center."

The letter from the S.M.A. is not an attack against the leaders, added the senior auditor, who said the letter is meant to "help our leaders".

"These comments are meant to help our leaders and those leading the fight to protect our country from COVID-19 and is not a personal attack on anyone or group of people," he said.

"Indeed I, like most of our people and country, am grateful and quite appreciate the difficulties and hardship that many of you, especially our frontline people, face on a daily basis, at the risk to themselves and their families.

"For me I am worried because I am aware of medical evidence about the new Omicron variant that is now in our country as follows and I quote: 'current evidence shows that it can take as little as three days from exposure for Omicron symptoms to show up.

"This is known as the ‘incubation period’: when you have the virus, and it’s working its way through your body. However, it could take longer for symptoms to show, as many as 14 days, according to the World Health Organisation. 

"Generally, it seems Omicron’s incubation period is a bit faster than other or past variants of Covid."

Su'a then listed down some of the factors that he is worried about, now that the Omicron variant is in Samoa.  

"The symptoms of the COVID-19 illness especially the Omicron variant can take up to 14 days before they show up. 

"However we locked down and opened up again only 9 days (19 January to 28 January 2022) after the plane load of infectious people arrived in Samoa. 

"The lockdown was slow to take effect and its removal was too quick compared to the 14 days maximum incubation period is up. It does not make medical sense to me.

"If there is any community infection, we would not know for sure until after the 14 days is up and yet we opened up before that date. 

"Again it is a big worry that it appears there is no proper 'expert' advising the Government and the N.E.O.C. on this.

"The Ministry of Health and the Disaster Committee have not explained to us what vaccination rate we have so far achieved for Samoa for the eligible population. 

"This information is so important because any long-term strategy regarding living with the COVID-19 illness going forward must be based on our population being highly vaccinated including booster shots especially with the Omicron variant.

"I worry because there is no update information at all regarding this key information, that the public should be provided with. 

"This lack of information creates uncertainty and a perception that there may be a need for more competent and proactive leadership to steer us forward, under the circumstances, especially the Ministry of Health and the N.E.O.C."

On Wednesday another nurse – who had managed some of the 30 active COVID-19 cases that are currently in managed isolation – tested positive to the virus to bring to 31 the total number of active cases in Samoa.