Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — The COVID-19 Task Force now plans “to move away from supervised quarantine” and to allow travelers arriving on Hawaiian Airlines flights from Honolulu “to be quarantine at their homes,” said task force chair, Lt. Gov. Talauega Eleasalo Ale during the government’s Zoom news conference on Monday.

“We are finalizing the plan on how it’s going to be done,” he said, noting that the next flight from Honolulu is set for Mar. 31.

“The task force and the team members will be working together with Health Department and our federal partners to make sure that the policies that we put in place will protect our people,” the Lt. Governor said.

Responding to a media follow-up question, Talauega said the “reason we’re exploring home quarantine is because COVID is already here in the community” and this is “part of the [ASG] COVID Safe model that we are looking at, to allow people to travel and behave responsibly.”

Talauega, who is also the Governor’s Authorized Representative (GAR) noted that travelers are tested twice prior to boarding the flight from Honolulu and the tests must be negative. And the task force monitors travelers even before they board the flight.

He said the task force is finalizing the procedures but most likely there’ll be some tests done when they arrive. “After that test they will be released to home quarantine for a number of days and then we will proceed from there,” Talauega explained.

To a follow-up media question on whether travelers “will behave”, the chair of the task force responded, “we are putting the responsibility on people to do the right thing.”

 “And the question is — do we think that people in American Samoa can do this? Absolutely. We have the responsibility to do this and we must,” he said, and pointed out that there’s also a need to focus personnel to where they are really needed.

“And at this point, we need to have our health personnel available to the community to deliver the vaccinations to our home bound population and to our elderly and also to test and treat them,” Talauega explained.

 “So that’s all part of the calculation that went into the task force consideration to move our resources from supervised quarantine and focus on the community since the virus is already in the community,” he said.

Home-quarantine for travelers from Honolulu was also discussed during the task force meeting prior to the news conference — including testing of passengers at the airport, upon arrival, and before being released for home quarantine.

During Monday’s virtual news conference, Health Department’s Dr. Elizabeth Lauvao shared an update on the Mar. 10 Hawaiian Airlines flight from Honolulu, in which all 264 travelers tested negative and were released this past Sunday — which was the third-day of quarantine for travelers at the Tradewinds Hotel, Sadie’s by the Sea, Airport Quarantine Facility and Fatuoaiga.

The travelers were released to home-quarantine for 7-days and they will be retested on the 7th day.

Dr. Lauvao said all DoH staff who worked this flight including those at the quarantine sites all tested negative too.

As previously announced by the task force, those released to home-quarantine/ isolation, are to register or be registered on the TalofaPass websystem for contact tracing and/ or for daily reporting that the individuals are abiding by all quarantine and isolation protocols and requirements.