The Minister of Foreign Affairs has announced extra medical support for Samoa's measles epidemic which has so far killed 72 people.
And for the first time, the ministry's confirmed it's "highly likely" that New Zealand is the main source of Samoa's outbreak.
The injections are still being administered amid Samoa's on-going emergency. Kiwi doctors and nurses have been among those helping, and on Friday Winston Peters witnessed the work for himself.
"We're very inspired by the zeal and the vision and [the] compassion of the medical teams," Peters said.
The Deputy Prime Minister has announced additional medical support, including more medical personnel and trauma support workers, four anaesthetists to help with a backlog of operations postponed due to the crisis, and funding for a new oxygen generation plant for the main hospital.
"The assistance provided by his [Peters'] Government has helped us greatly with our campaign," said Samoa Prime Minister Susuga Tuileapa Sailele Malielegaoi.
That campaign has seen 93 percent of the population vaccinated. There are now more than 5000 measles cases confirmed in Samoa, 85 of which were recorded in the past 24 hours.
Seventy-two people have died, and hospital admissions include 18 critically ill children.
On Friday afternoon, there was a new health alert. Passengers on two flights; NZ959 from Apia to Auckland and NZ445 from Auckland to Wellington are being warned to ensure they're immunised and watch out for signs of symptoms.
A passenger on these flights has been confirmed to have the disease.
"Regional public health were notified earlier in the week of a child under the age of 10 who had recently been in Samoa and come back to New Zealand, and subsequently developed measles," said Hutt Valley regional public health medical officer Dr Annette Nesdale.
It's been an unprecedented, on-going crisis for Samoa. Although the death toll continues to rise, authorities now believe they're beyond the peak of the epidemic.
