Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Quarantine days for the more than 200 passengers on board the Jan. 27 flight from Honolulu have been pushed forward as more positive COVID-19 cases were confirmed, including several “historical positives” and four members of the quarantine staff. Although no firm date was given on the extension of quarantine, DoH said during the press conference they continue to monitor the "current situation" and would make a decision on when those in quarantine will be released.

Samoa News reported earlier that in a Zoom meeting between DoH and the quarantined travelers this past Thursday, they were told quarantine was extended to Monday.

This was revealed during the Health Department’s news conference late Friday afternoon and streamed live on KVZK-TV’s Facebook page, with Health officials urging residents to get vaccinated and those who are fully vaccinated to get their booster shot, once they are eligible — to keep from getting seriously ill from the deadly coronavirus.

A total of 274 were on the Jan. 27 flight and went straight to the three designated quarantine sites — 195 travelers at Tradewinds Hotel, 22 at the ASG’s Alternate Care Facility (ACF) and 57 at Fatuoaiga facility.

The territory’s lead epidemiologist Dr. Aifili John Tufa, with DoH said during the news conference that the first COVID-19 test was conducted Jan. 31 and from those results four tested positive. Among the four — 3 travelers and one quarantine staff member were all from one of the quarantine sites.

The four cases were immediately taken to isolation, said Dr. Tufa, noting that they are all fully vaccinated and in “good health”.

The second round of tests was carried out on Feb. 2 for ACF and Fatuoaiga. From these, 7 tested positive from the ACF facility and 8 tested positive at Fatuoaiga. 

And after further investigation and other testing, all 15 of these travelers are considered “historical positive” meaning they contracted the virus sometime within the two months period before they traveled to American Samoa, he said.

“They are still currently in quarantine, are fully vaccinated, they are not symptomatic and in very good health,” he pointed out.

The second test for travelers quarantined at Tradewinds was done Feb. 3 and tests provided 26 positive results — 23 of which are travelers and three of them are quarantine staff.

Dr. Tufa said the three quarantined staff members, have been removed from the quarantine site and are in isolation. They are all fully vaccinated and in good health.

For the 23 travelers who tested positive — 16 of them, after further investigation and testing are considered “historical cases”.

At the time of the news conference, DoH was awaiting results for the other 7-positive cases as more tests were conducted “so we can determine if these are historical cases or recent infections,” said Dr. Tufa, who pointed out that DoH will report on the results once they become available.

As of late Friday afternoon, at the time of the news conference, a total of seven new infections were recorded in connection with the Jan. 27 flight and 31 “historical cases”, while seven tests are pending.

The new infections include quarantine staff who tested positive.

See Samoa News edition Monday for more details from the news conference.