The chairman of the COVID-19 Task Force Lt. Governor Talauega Eleasalo Ale told the cabinet yesterday that the August 26th date for the first commercial flight by Hawaiian Air to and from American Samoa since March of last year is tentative. It can change depending on the territory’s preparations to move from Phase 1, which is the repatriation effort that ends with the last flight from Honolulu this Thursday July 29, to Phase 2.
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The chairman and Governor Lemanu made it clear that the territory’s borders are not being reopened, rather they are allowing Hawaiian Air to operate flights with restrictions.
Talauega said it cost the government more than $9 million to operate repatriation flights for seven months and that cost cannot be sustained.
He explained the registry process and that travelers would have to undergo three COVID-19 tests in Honolulu prior to boarding the flight to Pago Pago. A positive test would automatically eliminate the traveler.
Talauega explained that the four people who disembarked from last Thursday’s Medicaid charter were sent to test the travel system for the August 26th flight. Two of the travelers are from the company that designed the Talofa Pass registry and the other two were the Director of Medicaid Sandra King Young and Director of Agriculture Solia Mutini. As of yesterday they were still in quarantine at the Tradewinds Hotel.
