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Testing and quarantine days reduced for upcoming March 10 flight

Dr. Fiona Trail
Task Force focus is now to “help us live safely with COVID”
fili@samoanews.com

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — During a Zoom news conference yesterday, Health Department’s Dr. Fiona Trail provided an update on the Mar. 10 Hawaiian Airlines flight from Honolulu announcing a policy change.

She said travelers on the flight would follow the same requirements as the previous ones, such as to register with the ASG’s TalofaPass web-system, which screens passengers entering into American Samoa.

“A new change, compared to previous policy, is that all travelers are now only required a total of two tests,” she said and explained that the first one, or Day 5 test, is done in any state or where ever the traveler is registering from.

And the 2nd test is required to be done in Hawaii before flight departure for Pago Pago. That means, the second test for the Mar. 10 flight, is to be done today, Tuesday.

Other requirements as in the past, is that all travelers 5 years and older are to be fully vaccinated.

Although a booster shot is not “currently mandated, we highly recommend to get it, especially now with the COVID spread is in our community,” she said during the news conference led by COVID-19 Task Force chair, Lt. Gov. Talauega Eleasalo Ale.

“We believe a booster shot further reduces your chances of developing serious COVID-19 illness, its complications, hospitalization and prevents death — especially since our population has a lot of medical problems, such as diabetes, hypotension, asthma, obesity, smoking and so forth,” she pointed out.

The three quarantine sites for this flight, are Fatuoaiga, Sadie’s by the Sea hotel and the new Airport Quarantine Facility at Pago Pago International Airport.

And the “quarantine duration for this flight is now only 72 hours, or three days,” Dr. Trail explained. Furthermore, there’s only one test done here for the travelers and that is on the third day of arrival — which means the test will be on Sunday, Mar. 13.

“If a new positive is identified, the individual will be assessed by the quarantine physician, who will determine if this individual will need to be given our COVID-19 medication — available on island — for treatment of any of our positive symptomatic cases before being discharged to home isolation,” she said, adding that the DoH EpiNet team will conduct follow ups with these travelers.

Asked why the task force reduced the quarantine days to three, Dr. Trail noted that the travelers are tested twice before arrival on island and that the “focus of the task force is to help us live safely with COVID.”

“Having them tested three days after arrival, allows us to assess if any of them have the virus with them,” she said noting that all these travelers will go directly to home quarantine upon release.

And the travelers are “expected to stay at home for the next seven days,” she explained. “There will also be penalties/ fines for those who breach the home quarantine directives.”

She added that the travelers will be given home isolation directives and must check-in daily on TalofaPass during home quarantine.

 “We’re looking forward to the support of the travelers” as well as the family members of the passengers. 

Asked for an update on the flight from Samoa last Friday, she said there were 40 passengers and all of them tested negative.

With the repatriation of local residents from Samoa completed, the inter Samoa air service route is once again closed until further notice, according to ASG officials.

Meanwhile, DoH’s Dr. Aifili J. Tufa confirmed — when asked during the news conference, — that four crew members on a container vessel tested positive and are in insolation in their cabins.

He also said the information was sent to authorities in Samoa, where the vessel stopped before sailing here. He said the vessel originated in California and headed to the Pacific, including Fiji.

As has been a long standing policy since 2020, no crew member is allowed off the vessel, while the local stevedoring company handles the required work.