Samoa Shuts Down In Unprecedented Battle Against Measles
December 5, 2019
3:19 pm
Samoa entered a two-day lockdown Thursday to carry out an unprecedented mass vaccination drive aimed at containing a devastating measles epidemic that has killed dozens of children in the Pacific island nation.
As the death toll climbed to 62, officials ordered all businesses and non-essential government services to close, shut down inter-island ferries and told people to keep their cars off the roads.
Residents were advised to obey a dawn-to-dusk curfew, staying in their homes and displaying a red flag if any occupants were not yet immunised.
Hundreds of vaccination teams, including public servants drafted in for the operation, fanned …
