Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — With the territory’s public and private schools closed due to the measles outbreak, students are waking up in the morning to face their tablets, laptops or desktop computers from their homes for online learning.

Here, a student of Samoa Baptist Academy is in uniform and in front of her iPad for the school’s morning devotion/ pledge and attendance roll call on Tuesday, April 24, 2023 from her home in Ottoville.

 Public school students began picking up laptops and class assignments from their schools on Monday, April 23, 2023, the day a public notice was sent out closing all schools for the next three weeks in order to contain the spread of the highly infectious measles disease.

A Public Health Emergency Declaration due to the Measles was released by the Governor’s Office the evening of April 23 providing for the Department of Health to utilize all necessary powers to contain and prevent the imminent risk of further spread of the measles. It also gives DOH the authority to isolate or quarantine a person confirmed to have measles for up to 21 days and prohibits price gouging during this