The government of Samoa is shutting down all public services for two days to fight a measles outbreak that has killed more than 55 people and infected thousands of others in the South Pacific island nation over the past two months.
Nearly 3,900 cases of measles have been reported in the country, whose population is just 200,000. Schools have been shuttered since the government declared the outbreak a national emergency last month.
The shutdown, which will take place Thursday and Friday, comes amid a resurgence of measles in dozens of countries in recent years. Worldwide, more than 140,000 people died from measles last year, according to estimates released Tuesday by the World Health Organization and the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention.