Code Red has put workers and small businesses in financial distress

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — While ASG leaders are concentrating all their efforts into stopping the community spread of the Coronavirus, many workers, families and small businesses are already starting to feel the financial impact of Code Red — with job closures and reduced hours.

It’s been a week now since Gov. Lemanu P. S. Mauga ordered the elevation of the COVID-19 threat level to Code Red, effective as of midnight February 22, 2022, which was Tuesday last week, while the closure of daycare services happened over 3 weeks ago and continues due to the Code Red.

As a result, many workers have been sidelined from their jobs and their families are suffering financially in the aftermath of the closures — what with many members of the same family all contributing to the joint income that pays the bills and buys the food in the household.

Fineaso Mata’u, a father of 5 from the village of Aua is one of the many people dealing with this financial problem. Fineaso, his wife and two sons all work for the cannery as fish cleaners and their services were suspended last week when ASG announced the elevation of the COVID-19 threat level to Code Red.

According to Fineaso, his family’s only income is from their employment at the cannery and his family lives ‘pay check to pay check’ on a weekly basis. The money they receive from their paychecks goes to pay their family bills such as water, electricity, rent and his loan at the bank.

“The is the second week since work at the cannery is suspended and if this continues for another week or so, our family will face a huge financial problem due to the fact that no one is working at this time to get money to buy food for the family in another one week or so,” Fineaso said.

“We know the pandemic has affected everyone in different ways but I’m trying to find a way to get a side job to earn some money for my family because we don’t know if the government will remain under Code Red for another week or so.”

A mother of three who works at one of the local daycare centers in town shared the same thoughts on how her young family has suffered financially for about 3 weeks now since the closure of all daycare centers and family care facilities since the beginning of last month.

Elisapeta Taavili of Fagatogo explained the financial hardship her family has faced for the last 3 weeks after she was instructed to stay home due to the closure of all the daycare services on island.

“Daycare centers were closed for two weeks at the beginning of February at the request of the Dept. of Health to stop the spread of RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus) and ever since that first week of February up until now, I have been unemployed and unable to provide for my family,” Ta’avili said.

On Friday, Feb. 18, the Dept. of Human and Social Services (DHSS) announced that all daycare centers and family care would be reopening. However, it was on Monday night, Feb. 22 that the government announced the elevation of the COVID-19 threat level to Code Red after the virus spread to the community.

A single mother of two young children told Samoa News that she is hoping that everything will back to normal next week so that she can go back to work to provide for her parents and her two children.

“As a mother and daughter, I have responsibilities that need to be fulfilled. I need to pay my bills, buy food and other stuff for my family and also pay for my father’s medication and loan, however, everything is stalled due to the pandemic,” Ta’avili said.

A businesswoman who runs a small restaurant across from StarKist Samoa in Atuu also shared her story on how the pandemic has affected her small business.

According to her, last week was one of the worst weeks for her business ever, because the cannery was not in operation and there were no customers to buy her food. She stated how in the past she made a good living from Monday to Friday because there were a lot of workers who came and bought her food. However, last week was a bad week. She only made $125 on Thursday and that was her best day .

She said if the government continues to extend the Code Red another week and further, her business will be in big trouble. She’s praying that the community spread of the virus decreases and the government will reopen everything … so that the cannery will be back in full force and her business will get back to normal where her sales were usually almost $1,000 per day.

Employees who had their working hours reduced due to the pandemic are facing similar financial problems to those who were laid off.

Two employees from a big restaurant in town told Samoa News they used to work 6 days a week for 8 hours or more a day. However, everything changed last week and now they’re working only 5 hours a day for three days a week.

Christina Minute explained her pay check this week will reflect the reduction of working hours and the check amount she’s going to receive will be very small compared to her regular check.

Samoa News also spoke to two bus drivers regarding the amount of money they are getting now since Code Red.

Wayne Opetaia, a Aua bus driver from Nu’uuli said the money he received last week without cannery workers was much lower than the amount he usually made when the cannery was in full force. He said that he made between $150 to $170 a day, if he started picking up passenger from 5am in the morning until 5pm in the evening.

Opetaia said he made only $89 last Thursday and it was a slow day for him and other bus drivers. He stressed that cannery workers are his main source of income and without the cannery workers, his small bus will not survive.

His colleague, Nofoa Talamanu echoed Opetaia’s statement, saying that last week was not a good week for him and his family, because the money that he was supposed to get from the bus was short and as a result, he was unable to pay some of his bills.

Samoa News points out that the government has not indicated it will be offering any financial help or ‘aid’ for those families and individuals affected by Code Red, especially in the low income bracket.

BACKGROUND

During the COVID-19 Task Force briefing from the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) this past Sunday night, Gov. Lemanu announced from a KVZT-TV live stream that the territory would remain under Code Red for another week.

Lemanu thanked members of the public for their patience and support with regards to the restrictions placed on them this past week in response to the community cases of Coronavirus. He said that without the support from members of the public effort by the government to contain the spread of the virus would be in vain.

 In accordance with the Declaration of Ongoing Public Health Emergency and State of Emergency, dated February 4th, 2022, the elevated level of threat will cause:

● All schools, daycare centers are closed; activate virtual learning.

● All ASG operations are suspended except for first responders and essential personnel.

● LBJ Hospital will take emergency cases only. All outpatient clinics are closed, pharmacy services will be limited.

● All businesses are only allowed to operate from 5 am to 4 pm.

● All air and sea travel will be suspended.

● No public gatherings: schools, daycare centers, churches, weddings, and funerals

● All persons, businesses, organizations, or agencies are required to mandate mask use inside of any building that is open to the public.

● Families are encouraged to self-quarantine and designate one family member to go to the store.

● All restaurants will be allowed to provide take-out only. Dine-in service is prohibited.

● Social distancing is highly encouraged.