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After one positive and two negative results, Samoa is awaiting an imminent definitive response from a Wellington laboratory on whether the country has its first case of Covid-19.
The Pacific Island announced that it had added its name to the list of countries affected by Covid-19 last Thursday, after a sailor who arrived in Apia from Auckland went on to test positive in quarantine.
The patient was part of a group of 27 Samoan sailors who had been stationed in various parts of Europe and arrived with 274 other passengers on a repatriation flight on November 13.
A press release issued Monday by the Samoa Government’s National Emergency Operations Center said the test results were expected to be released once New Zealand’s advice had been received on Tuesday.
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The sailor had been isolated in a special ward of the national hospital in Moto’otua, along with the man’s roommate, and neither had shown any symptoms of the virus, the Samoa Observer reported.
In the press release, officials said: “To date young sailors show no signs of the virus (asymptomatic). His temperature measurements are normal, no flu or cough, and his appetite is fine. “
The health officials who had been swabbing the two men were fully protected with personal protective equipment and had been handled in controlled isolation, he said.
GOVERNMENT OF SAMOA
Samoa’s Prime Minister, Tuila’epa Sa’ilele Malielegaoi, addressed the nation on Thursday, after the country registered its first case of Covid-19.
“The tests have started for all the front line officers who were at Faleolo airport.”
Samoa was assured “that the sanitary measures taken to treat this suspected case have been clinically performed with special care to ensure that it is contained within the isolation site.”
As the wait continues, test results for personnel who went into controlled isolation two weeks ago after a Covid-19 scare on a container ship came back negative. Staff will be discharged soon.
Samoa has been in a state of emergency for nine months as a result of the pandemic.
If the sailor’s test result is positive, there will only be eight countries without the virus: North Korea, Turkmenistan, Kiribati, Micronesia, Tonga, Palau, Nauru and Tuvalu, although doubts remain about the accuracy of some of the claims.
Antarctica remains the only continent that does not have a reported case.
