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PAGO PAGO, American Samoa (AP) – American Samoa, a U.S. territory in the Pacific, reported its first case of coronavirus on Friday.
The acting governor of the territory, Lt. Gov. Talauega Eleasalo Ale, and health officials said the first case of COVID-19 in the islands occurred in a resident who returned to American Samoa earlier this week from a trip to the U.S. mainland and Hawaii.
The infected traveler flew in on Monday, the first day of the newly launched commercial flights from Honolulu to Pago Pago. Because of the pandemic, the route has been suspended since March 2020.
There have been some positive coronavirus cases related to a cargo ship that docked in American Samoa last year. But the crew were never allowed to leave the ship, and officials did not include the isolated infections in their totals.
American Samoa Governor Lemanu Peleti Mauga was among the passengers on the Monday flight from Hawaii and is now in quarantine.
“The discovery of this positive case during quarantine underscores the importance of our process to prevent the spread of COVID-19,” the territory’s governor Lemanu Peleti Mauga said in the press release. “It further underscores the importance of maintaining our current quarantine logs.”
Officials said the sick resident was fully vaccinated and tested negative for COVID-19 before boarding the flight back to American Samoa.
In American Samoa, all travelers must be vaccinated and quarantined for 10 days upon arrival. Three tests are required before flying to the islands, and tests are also offered after the trip.
The infected person was among around 260 other passengers on the flight.
Health officials are looking for contacts and all other passengers on the flight are in quarantine for 10 days.
The patient was transferred to a government facility for two weeks for isolation and monitoring.
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