There have been more than 70,000 deaths from the new coronavirus in the United States, and there are thousands of new cases every day. However, there is still one area in the United States where no confirmed cases have been found and no deaths have occurred: American Samoa.
American public health officials said that the successful fight against epidemic in American Samoa was not accidental. In the early days of the spread of the new coronavirus, the island quickly took action, almost halted all inbound flights, rapidly improved its detection capabilities, and took advantage of the social distance measures taken in response to the measles outbreak at the end of last year. Today, this Polynesian island surrounded by palm trees has been isolated from the outside world for nearly two months.
△ The local beach is closed. According to the “New York Times”
There are a total of 55,000 residents in American Samoa. During the outbreak, they were allowed to enter bars, nightclubs, and restaurants, but the number of people entering and leaving these public places has decreased in the past month, because the store can only have a maximum of 10 customers at a time. . Although the working hours of civil servants here have changed from full-time to part-time, they have not stopped entering the office. The largest local private employer is a canned tuna factory with more than 2,000 employees. During the epidemic, the factory continued to operate.
Peter Brown, leader of the Roman Catholic Church in American Samoa, said: “Life in American Samoa is still normal, but due to transportation restrictions, supplies are somewhat inadequate.”
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American Samoa is about 2,575 kilometers from New Zealand and about 3,541 kilometers from Hawaii. In an interview with the New York Times by phone, text message, and social media, the locals described a feeling of being relieved and lonely about their situation now, and worried about the future of this land, because most people here There are cases of diabetes, high blood pressure, and obesity, which may increase the risk of dying from the new coronavirus.
“Since the flight was grounded in March, the sky has been quiet and creepy,” said Monica Miller, news director of a local radio station.
Seeing the spread of the virus in parts of Asia, Governor Lolo M. Moliga took decisive steps several weeks ahead of other states in the United States.
In early March, Moliga stopped flights to and from Hawaii in the area twice a week, and then canceled flights to Apia, the neighboring capital of Samoa. Since then, the only external route in the area has been a cargo plane that transports medical supplies and food from Hawaii every week.
In March this year, the American Samoa government quickly established a new coronavirus task force. In addition to closing churches and schools, it also adopted a series of relatively mild social alienation measures. For example, public gatherings in game halls and theaters were suspended, and correctional facilities suspended visits.
△ The local church is closed. According to the “New York Times”
There is a lack of medical staff in the area, and there is only one hospital, the Lyndon B. Johnson Tropical Medical Center, which can only treat approximately 10 patients with new coronary pneumonia at a time. In addition to submitting samples collected from suspected cases to the American Public Health Laboratory in Hawaii thousands of miles away to wait for the results, they themselves do not have the ability to detect and analyze.
Larry Sanitoa, a member of the American Samoa Parliament Fono and chairman of the “Hope House” nursing home, said, “That was a very terrible period, like flying blindly in a storm.”
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Moliga stated in a letter to US President Trump in March this year that American Samoa needed assistance. At the same time, they are doing everything they can to help other people, including the hundreds of Americans on the Norwegian Gem cruise. After being rejected at ports in Fiji and French Polynesia, the cruise ship was allowed to refuel in American Samoa.
Since then, American Samoa has received at least US $ 35 million in federal assistance, as well as more than 1,000 kits and a machine for analyzing test results, in response to the new crown pandemic.
Iulogologo Joseph Pereira, head of the New Samoa Virus Task Force in American Samoa, said that since receiving the machine in mid-April, they have done dozens of tests with negative results.
△ Pereira, the head of the American Samoa New Coronavirus Task Force, according to the “New York Times”
Due to the above test results and no signs of the virus spreading locally, the area remains the only area in the United States that has not been declared a major disaster. Pereira said that several recent outbreaks of the virus, such as the Zika virus in 2016, dengue fever in 2017 and 2018, and measles in 2019, affected American Samoa ’s decision at the beginning of the crisis.
“We have been preparing for a major disaster for some time,” he said. After the measles outbreak here in December last year, health officials are already on high alert because 83 people have died from measles in the neighboring Samoa It is a child under 5 years old.
In 1918, the pandemic took the lives of 8,500 people in neighbouring Samoa. But American Samoa has adopted isolation measures, as it is now, which makes American Samoa one of the few areas in the world where no one died in the flu pandemic.
Tamari Mulitalo-Cheung, a writer who teaches at American Samoa Community College, said: “The strict measures at that time saved American Samoa from death, and we cannot deviate from this principle today.”