By Staff Writer
The New Zealand repatriation flight last Sunday landed 8 COVID 19 positive cases in Samoa.
It is the second most number of carriers to arrive with the virus after the 19 February 2022 Qantas flight with 9 confirmed cases.
The flight landed at Faleolo International with 172 passengers before the confirmed cases were isolated at the TTM National Hospital Moto’otua and the rest spread around selected quarantine sites.
“They had to leave behind many of the passengers unable to meet health travel requirements before the flight took off for Samoa,” NEOC Chairman Agafili Shem Leo said when asked by Newsline Samoa.
Close to 100 of the frontline workers who attended the flight arrival are under quarantine as well as part of what is now standard protocol for health security.
Too early yet to know, however, if the new cases will lead to any changes in the Level One security code Samoa is in.
Passengers on quarantine are going through a scheduled series of follow up tests in the coming days.
“There are triggers for every level that when they go off we respond accordingly as in CODE RED when there is a community case,” Agafili added.
The example was when follow up tests on passengers from the 19 February 2022 flight steadily increased the number of positive cases from 9 all the way to 27 and up to 32 when 5 of the frontline workers tested positive.
Meanwhile, 25 dock workers at the Matautu-tai wharf are in quarantine this week also after 4 COVID cases were confirmed on the crew of a cargo vessel docked in Apia last week.
Four of the crew tested positive on arrival in American Samoa where they have a test policy in place for ships docked in the territory.
“For us in Apia our policy is to keep the crew locked away in quarantine on board while work is underway until it is time to leave,” Agafili explained.
The health security policy has remained effective from the start with local dockworkers remaining relatively protected of infection.