Travelers who arrived on a FEMA flight from Honolulu are being quarantined at the newly opened Department of Health Alternative Care Facilities in Tafuna.
According to Director of Health Motusa Tuileama Nua, the three include a FEMA employee, an attorney and a returning soldier.
Another FEMA official who was on the flight decided to return on the same flight because they did not want to be subjected to a 14-day quarantine.
Usually travelers on the FEMA flights are quarantined at the Tradewinds Hotel and they are able to move around but are monitored by the Health Department.
Motusa said from now on everyone has to be quarantined and the only quarantine sites being used are the two new buildings behind the Tafuna Community Health Center.
Meanwhile the inter Samoa flights which were to start bringing special skilled and technical workers yesterday, have been delayed till tomorrow.
According to the health director discussions are ongoing between the Governor’s Office and the Samoa Government concerning COVID-19 related protocols for travelers from Samoa to the territory and vice versa.
He said the discussions relate to those specialized workers or medical personnel traveling from outside Samoa.
The Samoa Government spelled out in their latest state of emergency orders that American Samoan residents and students traveling from Fiji will not be subject to quarantine but they must leave for the territory right away.
Motusa said the territory needs to heighten requirements for travelers from countries that have COVID-19 cases, like Fiji. Fiji this week recorded its first Coronavirus death.
Meanwhile Samoa now requires travelers from the territory to have a negative COVID-19 test 72 hours before arrival in Samoa.
