Samoan Prime Minister Tuila'epa Sailele Malielegaoi is calling for the country to "remain calm" and "not to lose faith" after the island nation last night recorded its first case of Covid-19.
A sailor who had flown from Auckland to Samoa on a repatriation flight on Friday, November 13, last night tested positive for coronavirus. A subsequent test this morning came back negative.
All passengers had been tested for Covid-19 prior to boarding.
The sailor has since been transferred to an isolation unit at a local hospital.
It was this morning revealed that the man had been travelling with 25 other sailors from Europe, who had then arrived in the country with 274 Samoans on last week's flight, the Samoa Observer reports.
In a Facebook Live address at 8.30am this morning (7.30am NZT), Malielegaoi said the sailor was "immediately isolated" after testing positive for Covid-19 after four days in quarantine.
"A second test was conducted at 6am (5am NZT) and it came out negative and these things happen ... At the same time [it is essential] for the country to remain calm," he said.
“Let us continue to remain calm and not to lose our faith in our never-ending divine blessings from our Father in Heaven."
Malielegaoi called on the public to take precautionary measures, including rigorous hand-washing and practise social distancing.
"We now have one case, and [Samoa] will also be added to the countries of the world that have the coronavirus," he said.
It comes nine months after Samoa first declared a state of emergency due to the pandemic.
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