By Martha Taumata Faavae
Port Authority workers are holding unwavering faith in the safety of health security measures after a short stop-over in Apia of a container ship with some of the crew that were later found to be coronavirus carriers.
“We have a system of safety procedures in place since our State of Emergency started and we followed it very closely,” a senior Samoa Port official assured.
“Our dock workers have all been fully trained on the precautions to take and they also have protective gear when on duty while the vessels are in port.”
The Port Authority workers reaction is in response to the 3 crew members of a container ship who were tested positive in American Samoa after a short stop-over in Apia.
The Fesco Askold vessel sailed from California to Tahiti and journeyed on to Samoa last Sunday 8th of November 2020.
The vessel was back on route to American Samoa on Monday 9 November 2020 where tests on the crew members returned positive for the pandemic virus.
An official Government statement last night emphasized the strict procedures that were followed in the evaluation of the container ship and her crew before they were allowed entry into port.
“All frontline officials were fully protected with personal protection equipment (PPE), masks, and gloves in the performance of their prescribed duties at the wharf,” the statement assured.
“Containers offloaded from this ship were sterilized. This joint operation has been undertaken carefully to make sure that Samoa is safe and protected from the COVID 19.”
The statement went on to assure that “Samoa remains COVID 19 free to date.”
All port workers and other front line officials who serviced the container ship are currently held in isolation as part of the health security process that is now standard procedure.
“They will be tested over the next five (5) days for COVID 19. To date, they all remain healthy and well.”
This is the second time American Samoa has returned positive tests on travelers to the territory.
The first ended with the Department of Homeland Security announcing in a special bulletin last Thursday 5 November that the positive results from the initial testing were not true.
“The second more detailed test results have come back negative making the first sample a ‘false’ positive,” the special bulletin officially verified.
It is unclear from American Samoa if there is a second and more detailed test to re-confirm the earlier findings.