Someone Tested Positive for COVID Here for the First Time

A fully vaccinated person with no symptoms tested positive for COVID while quarantining at a hotel in American Samoa—the territory’s first case. Flights are suspended, but otherwise nothing is changing on the islands, the Hill reports. “The discovery of this positive case during quarantine highlights the importance of why our process is crucial to prevent the spread of COVID-19,” American Samoan Gov. Lemanu Mauga said in a statement released on Facebook by American Samoa Department of Homeland security. Travelers to the territory must be vaccinated and quarantine for 10 days upon arrival. Mauga was one of the passengers on the flight with the infected person, a resident returning home from a trip to the mainland US and Hawaii, per US News & World Report.

The patient, part of a group of 43, has been moved to a government facility for isolation. All 217 travelers quarantined at the same hotel were tested and nobody else had the virus, per the statement. The local government also asked everyone to keep wearing masks and following social distancing practices. There have been no other COVID infections, but a cargo ship that docked there last year reported some cases. None of the people on the ships went ashore, however. (More COVID-19 stories.)