Another positive test brings COVID border cases to 11

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — American Samoa now has eleven imported COVID-19 cases after one of the passengers on the Dec. 6th Hawaiian Airlines flight from Honolulu tested positive, according to information received by Samoa News on Monday evening.

DoH officials said in a news conference last Friday that 253 passengers traveled on the Dec. 6th flight and went into quarantine, with the first COVID-19 test administrated last week Thursday and completed the following day — but results were not available at the time.

Information received by Samoa News along with a confirmation from an ASG official, states that results for one traveler came back “acute positive” and that individual was immediately taken into 14-day isolation.

Furthermore there were two positive “historical” cases, meaning that the pair had previous tested positive for the virus.

And all three individuals are fully vaccinated — as required by American Samoa for all travelers entering the territory.

The second round of COVID-19 testing was carried out on Dec. 12th and completed Dec. 13th but the results weren’t available to Samoa News at press time. It’s understood that all travelers whose tests continued to be negative were to be released from isolation yesterday.

Meanwhile, an ASG official said yesterday that all travelers from Samoa are no longer required to under go the 24-hour quarantine period upon arrival, while all other entry requirements remain in place — such as negative tests submitted to ASG prior to travel. The new policy for travelers from Samoa went into effect last week.

Flights on the inter Samoa route operated only one-day a week during the American Samoa mass vaccination drive over the last two weeks, and will continue to do so for the final mass vax push in the Eastern District this week.