Faipule urges ASG to take increased positive cases seriously

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Rep. Avagafono Tuavao Vaimaga Maiava has called out to leaders of the American Samoa Government (ASG) to take the issue of increased positive cases of COVID-19 at the border seriously and consider a move to prevent further consequences.

During the House Session on Monday, Avagafono said leaders need to take a more cautious approach since the Jan. 27 flight is the first flight where the territory is dealing with so many travelers testing positive. He was referring to reports by the Department of Health that new positives cases were reported last Saturday, Feb. 5. (See update on cases elsewhere in today’s issue.)

He asked the Speaker of the House if there is any possibility of advising leaders of the government to delay the next HAL flight from Honolulu until all positive cases are cleared and released back into the community.

Avagafono said that members of the community, along with some of the passengers who are in quarantine are confused about what is going on and something needs to be done to prevent the virus from spreading.

The chair of the House Health Committee, Rep. Andra Samoa informed faipule that Health officials had added another 4 days in quarantine and have pushed forward the release date to this coming Friday.

Vice Speaker of the House disagreed with the decision by the Department of Health to add 4 days for people who are quarantined. Fetu Fetui Jr said that the state of mind of a person who is locked up inside a prison cell for 24 hours is not good. Not only is that person going crazy but his health is also affected.

“Picture in our minds the state of mind for all the passengers tested negative but they are still in quarantine for almost two weeks now. These passengers must be released to go home and leave only those who tested positive until the 14 days of quarantine is over,” Fetu suggested.

(Samoa News has been told anonymously, but has been unable to substantiate the information that some passengers, who tested negative and are quarantined at the Tradewinds, did not react well to the announcement of the extended stay. They reacted by throwing chairs and upturning tables in their rooms.)

Speaker of the House, Savali Talavou Ale asked faipule to give their full support to Health officials who have the knowledge to do their job. He said that placing all passengers inside the quarantine for 14 days is for the benefit of the whole community.