DoH confirms surge in positive cases is beginning to decline

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — During the Health Department’s presentation at Monday’s virtual news conference, DoH clinical service acting director, Dr. Elizabeth Lauvao pointed out that “we continue to see a decrease in the number of our daily tests and this is also in line with the decrease in the number of positive [COVID] cases.”

For example, on Sunday, Apr. 3, a total of 26 positives were reported from LBJ Medical Center — which was the only site conducting testing while DoH stood down that day.

This compared to previous Sunday, Mar. 27, in which 32 confirmed cases were reported from LBJ, she said noting that the “decrease in positive cases is also seen” at DoH clinics.

“We’re also keeping an eye on those numbers and hopefully we continue to see this downward curve of positive cases,” she said and noted that DoH and LBJ continue to offer therapeutic treatment for positive cases.

However, she said that one of the therapeutic treatment options is no long available on island after the U.S Food and Drug Administration (FDA) “pulled the emergency use authorization” because it doesn’t cover omicron variant BA.2, which is now the common variant in the region — which includes American Samoa, states and other territories.

According to Dr. Lauvao, DoH is collecting samples of positive cases to be sent to the Hawaii state lab to test for the COVID variant, to ascertain if the BA.2 sub-variant is circulating in American Samoa. “Evidence shows that we are still dealing with the BA.1 sub-variant,” she said.

(Details on the variant at www.cdc.gov as well as www.fda.gov for other info.)

Dr. Lauvao also provided an update on the number of positive cases in accordance with age group, saying that the majority of positive cases are from 18 to 60 years old “and consistent with our working group. People are not just coming in to get tested because of symptoms, but are also coming in to be tested for work related policies.”

Furthermore, the majority of positive cases — at 84% — are from those who are fully vaccinated and protected from severe disease.

DoH also explained how it is tracking the progression of the COVID outbreak, comparing it with other countries and jurisdictions. And based on the 7-day case rate, “it appears that we have reached and passed the peak of our outbreak,” said Dr. Lauvao, whose presentation included charts.

“We are now in the downward trend. We hope to see this trend to continue in the coming weeks compared to last week. We are seeing less people coming in to get tested, consequently less numbers of cases,” she explained.

Although there’s a decline in numbers of those tested and positive cases, “we still need to monitor LBJ,” she said. “From around the world, data suggests that hospitalization usually peaks from one to two weeks, after the number of cases peak.”

“This means, we’re not in the clear with LBJ. We still need to make sure that our patients are being assessed for treatment, and we need to identify those who need to be hospitalize and receive treatment from LBJ,” she said. “DoH will work closely with LBJ in the coming weeks.”

At the time of the news conference, American Samoa’s vaccination coverage rate had reached 83.4%. Individuals who are fully vaccinated and have received a booster are estimated at 59.5%.

DoH continues to encourage 11,434 individuals who are already due for a booster to come and get one. It also continues to encourage the community to get vaccinated if they have not done so. “COVID-19 vaccines are working very well to prevent severe illness, hospitalizations, and death. Vaccine effectiveness against COVID infection decreases over time, and boosters increase your protection against COVID-19,” DoH said in a separate statement on Monday.

Dr. Lauvao also shared brief information on the second booster dose, saying that “we are currently discussing” the second booster dose release by FDA in March and DoH will update the COVID-19 Task Force after meetings to discuss the booster shot for the community.

FDA had announced that the second booster dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine or Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine may be administered to individuals 50 years of age and older at least 4 months after receipt of a first booster dose of any authorized or approved COVID-19 vaccine.

Furthermore, a second booster dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine may be administered to individuals 12 years of age and older with certain kinds of immune-compromised conditions at least 4 months after receipt of a first booster dose of any authorized or approved COVID-19 vaccine.

(More information on second booster at www.fda.gov)