Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Close to 50 members of the community (including infants and babies) gathered in front of Tropical Pizza in Tafuna, early Saturday morning, to show their strong support for the Tagata Tutu Faatasi Alliance of Amerika Samoa (TTFAAS), an alliance comprising 500+ residents of American Samoa, who have been stranded off island, since border closure in March of this year.

Armed with signs to deliver their message — like “Repatriation Not Open Borders” or “Bring Our Families Home” — the group formed a ‘wave’ calling out to Governor Lolo M. Moliga, to please bring their parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters, home.

According to members of the TTFAAS, they are not asking for the Territory’s borders to open up, they are only asking they be allowed to return home to family and children.
The wave was spearheaded by some of the stranded residents’ children, Brittany Duane, KJ Ameperosa, Saualofa Ale-Failautusi, Tanya Ma’o-Aab, Amete Mulipola and Vasati Fitiausi.

The demonstration comes after Health director Motusa Tuileama Nua presented apreliminary repatriation plan at last Wednesday’s cabinet meeting,

During the presentation, Motusa said many residents have called regarding a repatriation flight from Hawaii and the US mainland. And DoH’s plan will be presented sometime next week to the task force chairman before submission to the governor and lieutenant governor.

DoH’s plan would require a 10-day quarantine period in Hawaii with COVID-19 testing in Honolulu and the Pacific Health Officers Association (PIHOA) — a professional organization in which DoH is a member — will assist with making arrangements for testing with already identified medical doctors in Honolulu.

Motusa said PIHOA would also assist in identifying three hotels — with room capacity of up to 180-plus for quarantine of travelers before they board the flight to Pago Pago where upon arrival the travelers will undergo the local required 14-day quarantine.

And DoH is working on launching a medically certified website, by a Texas based firm, that allows the transfer of medical information between American Samoa and Hawaii for travelers wanting to travel on the repatriation flight. He said this service is needed because our local doctors are not medically licensed/ certified to practice in Hawaii. The website will also have a section on frequently asked questions to help travelers.

Gov. Lolo has said that he is exploring how to repatriate residents stuck off island since the lockdown of the Territory’s borders safely, including doing a ‘practice’ run of how it would be handled last week. However, to date, there has been no official notification of when this will occur and what exactly the ‘practice’ will encompass.

Samoa News also notes it received a phone call from a woman claiming to be calling from the Dept. of Health that a COVID-19 case had just been confirmed with a passenger off of a plane from Samoa. The DoH director told Samoa News this was not true.

In the meantime, Lolo has asked that Hawaiian Air continue to suspend flights to American Samoa for the month of October. (See story in today’s issue.)