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DoH tells House hearing that 76.9% of eligible population is fully vaccinated

Covid-19 Task Force members
ausage@samoanews.com

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — As of January 19, 2022, 76.9% of American Samoa’s eligible population, or 38,218 people have been fully vaccinated for COVID-19 since the vaccination campaign started back in December of 2020, according to an updated report presented by members of the COVID-19 Task Force to representatives during a House Health hearing yesterday morning at the House chamber.

The hearing was chaired by the committee chairperson, Rep. Andra Theresa Samoa, assisted by vice chairman, Rep. Alumamalu Filoali’i Ale.

According to the updated report, out of a total population of 49,710, 82.8% have received at least one dose.

A total of 1,808 people are awaiting their 2nd shot with 1,121 people past due for the 2nd doses.

For the booster shot, 4,898 people out of all age groups have received  their shot,  while 31,040 have not received a booster yet.

86.7% of all public and private school children eligible for the vaccine have received at least one dose while 74.1% are fully vaccinated.

10.9% or 1,327 of eligible students are awaiting their 2nd dose and about 1.7% or 208 students are past due for their 2nd dose, while 13.3% have not gotten their first dose.

As of yesterday, 338 million cases have been recorded globally with over 5.5 million deaths. The report also shows that 3.1 million new cases and 7,942 new deaths were reported in the last 24 hours.

For the Pacific Island Countries, 1,508 new cases and 10 new deaths were reported since January 14, 2022. American Samoa is among those Pacific island countries with 7 new cases reported since January 7th. These have all been what is being termed as ‘border’ cases.

According to Task Force, the January 6h Hawaiian Airlines flight brought home 179 passengers. 171 were released back to their families last Friday, while 8 passengers are still in isolation.

The 8 passengers who are isolated include the 7 passengers who tested positive and one passenger who was in close contact with one of the family members who tested positive. These people will be release back to their families after their period of quarantine. All are fully vaccinated and are asymptomatic. They are not showing any symptoms of COVID-19.

As of January 18, a total of 21,900 samples have been collected from various entries in the territory since the COVID-19 campaign started. 346 samples were collected from the quarantine sites while other samples were collected from various locations such as 5 from LBJ; 30 from DOH Lab; 120 from Seaport and 4 from the airport. 24 samples collected turned out positive while 21,876 turned out negative.

The 24 positive samples include 6 from the Seaport and 18 from the HAL flights, which includes the 7 from the Jan. 6 flight.