Dr. Tufa questioned about the possibility of community spread

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Quarantine days for the more than 200 passengers on board the Jan. 27 flight from Honolulu have been pushed forward as more positive COVID-19 cases were confirmed, including several “historical positives” and four members of the quarantine staff.

As of late Friday afternoon, at the time of the news conference, a total of seven new infections were recorded in connection with the Jan. 27 flight and 31 “historical cases”, while seven tests are pending.

The new infections include quarantine staffers who tested positive and this immediately becomes a public concern with these staffers becoming possible carriers of the virus, probably causing community transmission of the deadly virus. Some travelers in quarantine, alerted family members — via email and social media — of the quarantine staffers who tested positive.

Samoa News notes that travelers in quarantine are updated on the testing results during Zoom sessions with DoH officials.

The media raised the concern over the quarantine staffers and travelers who tested positive and raised the possibility of spreading the virus to the community during the news conference. DoH was asked if the government is concerned about it.

Dr. Tufa responded by explaining the process of when the travelers arrive off the plane and head directly into buses at the airport’s tarmac to be take them directly to their designated quarantine site, where the travelers are “escorted straight” to their rooms.

For “our quarantine staff — once the quarantine starts, that staff goes inside the facility. They do not come out. They don’t go home. We try to make sure that they follow the policies,” Dr. Tufa explained.

“With our staff testing positive, we are doing an investigation on why that happened and we will be doing retraining, and also looking at possible disciplinary actions for breaking our quarantine policies,” he further explained.

“So we’re saying that it does happen,” he said and pointed out that the omicron variant of COVID-19 “is very, very infectious and can travel pretty quickly.”

“So we can expect that some things like this might happen but we are going to do our best for future flights to make sure that there’s retraining, and making sure that our PPEs (personal protective equipment) process is done correctly and to move forward from there,” he said.

It was noted during the news conference that the omicron virus is spreading in many countries around the world including the U.S. Additionally the omicron variant has been confirmed in Hawaii.

JAN 27 TRAVELERS

The COVID-19 Task Force had put in place the 7-day quarantine for arrivals from Honolulu and the Jan. 27 passengers were due to be released from quarantine last Friday.

However, the Health Department “extended it [to] 10-days” (which is today, Monday, Feb. 07) — “so we can squeeze in another testing just to make sure, so we can look at the laboratory values and compare” from the previous two testings, the territory’s lead Epidemiologist, Dr. Aifili John Tufa with DoH, said during the department’s news conference last Friday afternoon.

“And if things are well, we’ll assess from there whether to extend it further,” he said, responding to a news media question on when travelers in quarantine will be released to their waiting family members.

At the outset of the news conference — where health officials urged fully vaccinated residents to get their booster shot — Dr. Tufa said 274 passengers were on the Jan. 27 flight and went straight to the three designated quarantine sites — 195 travelers at Tradewinds Hotel, 22 at the ASG’s Alternate Care Facility (ACF) and 57 the Fatuoaiga facility.

The first COVID-19 test was conducted Jan. 31 and from those results four tested positive. Among the four are 3 travelers and one quarantine staff member.

The four cases were immediately taken to isolation, said Dr. Tufa, noting that they are all fully vaccinated and in “good health”.

The second round of tests was carried out on Feb. 2 for ACF and Fatuoaiga. From these sites, 7 tested positive from the ACF facility and 8 tested positive at Fatuoaiga. 

And after further investigation and other testing, all 15 of these travelers are considered “historical positive” meaning they contracted the virus sometime within the two months period before they traveled to American Samoa, he said.

The 15-travelers “are still currently in quarantine, are fully vaccinated, they are not symptomatic and in very good health,” he pointed out.

The second test for travelers quarantined at Tradewinds was done Feb. 3 and tests provided 26 positive results — 23 of which are travelers and three of them are quarantine staff.

Dr. Tufa said the three quarantined staff members, have been removed from the quarantine site and are in isolation. They are all fully vaccinated and in good health.

For the 23 travelers who tested positive — 16 of them, after further investigation and testing, are considered “historical cases”.

At the time of the news conference, DoH was awaiting results for the other 7-positive cases as more tests were conducted “so we can determine if these are historical cases or recent infections,” said Dr. Tufa, who pointed out that DoH will report on the results once they become available.

(At press time, Samoa News had not received the latest update on the 7-pending cases)

BOOSTER SHOT

DoH Chief Pharmacist and chair of the COVID-19 Task Force Vaccine Working Group, Dr. Francine Amoa, said that DoH is seeing from other countries that the omicron variant “is now spreading”.

“They are showing that if you have the booster, that increases your immunity and decreases the ability to spread the infection to others,” she said and recalled that DoH had discussed earlier on, regarding the importance of the first and second COVID-19 doses, to protect from the virus.

“But as we learn more, and as data comes through from other countries, we are learning and we are following closely, we strongly recommend that if you are due for your booster dose — meaning five months after your Moderna or your Pfizer, and 2 months after your Janssen [ J&J COVID-19 vaccination] — please come in to get the booster dose,” she advised the community.

Dr. Amoa also shared an update on the vaccination rate, saying that “79% are fully vaccinated is the current coverage” for the total eligible population and this is “very good news because we are getting very close to our target of 90% or higher.”

Regarding school children — with an estimated total enrollment of 12,300 for both public and private schools — coverage for students, is about 79.5%. For the 5 to 11 years old — the age group that was recently approved for the vaccine in November — about 4,000-plus have completed the two-doses.

To boost vaccination rates for school students, Dr. Amoa announced that DoH has scheduled a return to the school-based vaccination sites for Feb. 18, Feb. 23, Feb. 25 and Feb. 28 — which is also the date for the end of the $100 cash incentive for this age group of 5 to 11, for the first or second shot.

She reminds parents and legal guardians to get their children fully vaccinated if they have not done so.

Dr. Amoa also provide an update from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the Moderna vaccine, which was still under “emergency use authorization”, but is “now fully approved by the FDA”.

“So we are very pleased to share that information, because both the Pfizer — for 16 years and older and the Moderna for 18 years and older — are now both fully approved by the FDA,” said.

Call the DoH command post at 219 for this week’s vaccination sites and dates, or visit the DoH Facebook page for the latest update.