16 Apr 2020

American Samoa starts local Covid-19 testing

4:44 pm on 16 April 2020

American Samoa has begun conducting its own Covid-19 tests, with its first samples producing negative results.

Last week the territory sent 15 samples to Hawai'i which have also come back negative.

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Photo: AFP

Department of Health Epidemiologist Dr. Aifili John Tufa said his office took delivery of a testing machine, test kits and swabs last week, which were now in operation.

So far 29 people who showed symptoms of Covid-19 have all had tested negative for the coronavirus

American Samoa was the only US jurisdiction without a confirmed Covid-19 case.

Earlier Governor Lolo Matalasi Moliga told the local taskforce no one in American Samoa died during the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic which lasted three years.

He said there was no reason why that record couldn't be repeated with the current pandemic.