Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — LBJ Medical Center has recorded another COVID-19 related death, bringing the total fatalities to 28 as of May 2, according to officials who attended Tuesday’s COVID-19 Task Force briefing, where LBJ presented the latest update.

The latest death is a 43-year old female, but no other information was available at press time on the vaccination status and whether the deceased had other health issues. LBJ also reported that another death is being reviewed for confirmation in order to ascertain if it was COVID-19-related.

Also at the briefing, Health Department (DoH) reported the 28th death — based on data from LBJ.

DoH also reported 25 new positive cases as of May 2, bringing the total cumulative count to 5,837 since the community spread of COVID-19 was first recorded on Feb. 21, with Tafuna village having the highest reported positives of 1,020, followed by Nu’uuli with 662 and Leone at 458.

At the time of the briefing DoH was monitoring 109 active cases — which includes 16 on Ta’u island in Manu’a, with 14 at Faleasao village and two at Ta’u village. DoH said it continues to send medical supplies, personal protective equipment (PPEs) and masks to both Tau and Ofu clinics.

DoH will also be transporting more monoclonal antibodies and antiviral medications to Manu’a for therapeutic treatment. And DoH has already dispatched medical staff to the island group while the DoH EpiNet team will continue to monitor COVID positive cases.

For the reopening of public schools, which calls for staggered in-person classroom instruction, DoH and the local Education Department collaborated in the schools’ “hands-on certification training” on Apr. 26 at two locations. A total of 63 ASDOE representatives attended the training, with 28 schools represented.

According to DoH, each school was given a kit containing, tests, gloves, sanitizers, instructions, and testing forms. DoH said that symptomatic students are prioritized for testing and schools can request more test kits.