Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — “This is a critical point for American Samoa as the numbers continue to drop, in terms of [COVID] positive rates, [and] our admissions to the hospital continue to wane,” says Lt. Gov. Talauega Eleasalo Ale during yesterday’s COVID-19 Task Force virtual news conference.

“This is a time where things can go side-ways, if we are not careful,” he said. “And that is why I’m asking our community - I know many of you are eager to go out to restaurants and other places and have big public gatherings — please continue to practice safety and make sure you don’t end up releasing and causing another spread in the community.”

Yesterday marked the 77th day since the community spread of COVID-19 was first recorded on Tutuila. Talauega noted that from the “beginning to now, we have faced many difficulties, we’ve seen the loss of lives and spread of COVID on Tutuila and Aunu’u and now finally reaching the Manu’a islands.”

“We’re grateful to all the support that we have gotten from the federal partners, from the health community and from you — the people of American Samoa,” said Talauega, as the news conference was also on KVZK-TV and streamed live on its Facebook page.

“Thank you for bearing with us, throughout all of the difficulties, restrictions that have been placed on your freedoms,” said Talauega, who is also the Governor’s Authorized Representative (GAR). He again called on the community’s continued cooperation and support in the coming weeks and months.

Following Talauega’s opening remarks was the Health Department Situational Report as of May 8, with DoH acting clinical director, Dr. Elizabeth Lauvao saying that only one-positive community case was recorded over the 24 hours ending Sunday, bringing American Samoa’s total cumulative count to 5,909 positives since Feb. 21, when the first case was recorded.

And in the past 24 hours, there were no new fatalities and total fatalities relating to COVID stand at 29, according to LBJ Medical Center.

For the Manu’a island group, there was no new positive cases recorded as of May 8 but total cumulative for the island group has reached 35 — with 25 at Faleasao village and 10 at Ta’u village on Ta’u island. Ofu and Olosega remained COVID-19 free at the time of the news conference.

According to DoH, as of May 8 there are 132 active cases for American Samoa, with 19 at Faleasao and 10 at Ta’u village. DoH said six individuals were released from home quarantine in the prior 24-hour period.

Samoa News will report in tomorrow’s edition on other issues from the news conference.

This Health Department chart shows the active COVID-19 cases and the number in each village as of May 8.