Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — In a press release issued this past Friday afternoon, the COVID-19 Task Force announced that travelers wishing to enter or leave American Samoa will be required to provide proof that they have been vaccinated for COVID-19 or face quarantine. Other recent releases to the media from the Task Force are still using the terminology ‘encouraging’ vaccination rather than ‘requiring’ vaccination.

The Task Force clarified that this does not mean that travelers who are too young to be vaccinated or those who are not medically qualified to be vaccinated would be denied entry or exit, but they will be quarantined. Those who cannot be vaccinated will need to be quarantined for a longer time and children who are quarantined will need a parent or guardian to accompany them.

At last week's COVID-19 Task Force meeting on Monday May 17th, Department of Health Epidemiologist Dr Aifili Tufa said that the number of vaccinations administered at the distribution sites saw a slight increase compared to the previous week. “On the first week of May, a total of 690 individuals came but from May 10th through May 16th, a total of 1,194 individuals visited one of ASG’s vaccine distribution sites.” 

The Department of Health vaccination team hopes that this trend continues while they plan innovative ways to promote vaccinations and as the American Samoa Government’s repatriation program doubles its number of flights entering the summer months beginning in May.

COVID-19 testing remains a critical component to detection and the prevention of the COVID-19 virus from entering our Territory and thus far the Department of Health has reported a total of 6,242 tests conducted. Of that total, 9 tested positive –– most of which were border cases and two of which were historical positives (non-contagious). 

The American Samoa Dept of Health continues to push forward with vaccination plans in coordination with the Office of Samoan Affairs to begin rolling out their village strategy and aim to provide increased accessibility to the vaccination sites. Vaccination coverage by district/village presented at the Task Force suggests that villages further east and that live furthest away from vaccination distribution sites show a lower rate of vaccination. 

The vaccination working group will soon be announcing its plans for vaccination of children ages 12-15 years old as approved by the FDA for emergency use authorization.   Other vaccination updates for the past week include 60.2% (22,217) with at least one shot for ages 16 and above and 52.5% (19,369) that have completed two shots for ages 16 and above. In terms of the total population of American Samoa, 40.9% of the population has completed their vaccination, 46.9% have received at least one dose, 31.0% have not yet received any doses, and 22.1% are not yet eligible to receive vaccination. 

5^TH REPAT FLIGHT

The American Samoa Medicaid State Agency office in a notice last week from Honolulu on its Facebook page, announced that the 5th repatriation flight has been postponed from May 28 until June 01.

The announcement states that the postponement was in “light of recent break-through variant positive cases in Honolulu.”

There still has been no official statement from the COVID-19 Task Force on the postponement.

Meanwhile, KHJ radio is reporting that it has received confirmation that Director of Health Motusa Tuileama Nua and Medicaid Director Sandra King-Young are being quarantined in Honolulu. Samoa News has not independently verified this information.

PASSENGERS ON REPAT #4 RELEASED FROM QUARANTINE

Fully vaccinated residents that were in quarantine at Fatu O Aiga were released on Monday May 17th and the remaining partially vaccinated or unvaccinated in quarantine were discharged later in the week following the results of their second test on May 19th. Vaccinations were also offered to unvaccinated residents in quarantine at Tradewinds on Tuesday May 18th.

The COVID-19 Task Force and the Department of Health continue to emphasize and stress to the American Samoa community –– locally and abroad in the US and Hawaii –– to please get vaccinated and to do their part in keeping themselves, their families, and the community safe from COVID-19. 

 (Source: COVID-19 Task Force media release)