Six travelers from Hawaii and Samoa who tested positive for COVID last week are in isolation at the airport hangar quarantine facility.
Four travelers off the Hawaiian airlines flight, Thursday, tested positive for COVID. Then the next day, two travelers from Samoa also tested positive.
Director of Clinical Services for the Department of Health, Dr. Elizabeth Lauvao, says DOH has changed its policy regarding close contacts. They are no longer taken into isolation but allowed to go home.
The Hawaiian Airlines flight, last Thursday, brought 240 passengers.
In related news, Samoa Airways now has flights on the inter-Samoa route Monday to Friday.
Since the airline no longer bases the plane, used for flights to Manu’a, at Tafuna Airport, it is able to bring the passengers from Apia and take them on the return flight to Samoa; on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
On Mondays, the airline has two flights and on Wednesdays, as well as Fridays, it has three flights.
Airline officials say, the inter-Samoa flights are full going and coming and there’s even higher demands for seats next month, when church conferences are held in Apia.
