The Covid-19 outbreak in Samoa sparked by a repatriation flight from Auckland earlier this month has seen the country plunged into lockdown for a further two weeks.
Prime Minister Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa made the announcement on Tuesday night, keeping restrictions that include a ban on gatherings, church, public transport and the closing of all non-essential businesses until at least April 5.
The first community case was detected on Thursday last week, following the arrival of a plane from New Zealand on March 6.
There have since been 467 cases with total infections almost doubling overnight. 220 new cases were reported by the government on Wednesday morning.
That's up from 66 new cases to a total of 247 on Tuesday.
The Prime Minister said on Tuesday an uptick was anticipated.
"The surge in community cases was expected, and will continue to increase due to the transmissability of this virus," she said.
She urged Samoans to get vaccinated and follow public health measures.
"Unfortunately, the tests conducted this week showed that some have not even started their vaccination, or have not completed their two doses. This is a concern for all of us."
Almost 90% of the population over the age of 18 has had two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine, but not many have had a third.
Numbers from the Samoan Ministry of Health on Tuesday show fewer than 9,000 booster doses have been given.
The booster vaccination campaign had been paused to focus on vaccinating children.
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