Health Tracing Information of 47% of Unrecorded COVID Positive Cases  

By Lagi Keresoma

APIA, SAMOA – 22 MARCH 2022: The Ministry of Health is scrambling to trace 47% of confirmed Covid-19 positive community cases as their information is not recorded on their health records.

The Acting Director of Health, Tagaloa Dr. Robert Thomsen confirmed in a press conference yesterday that information for 47% of such cases are unrecorded.

“We note that some of the positive cases only had the names but not their villages on their charts and some of them do not remember when they had their jabs,” said Tagaloa.

He said the Ministry now working to trace these people by phone and get their information to be recorded on their records.

How such important information is missing begs further questions when such information must have been recorded on the persons Vaccination ID Card prior to the person taking the jab.

The identification of a positive person was raised during the press conference as a means of awareness for the public to avoid areas or villages where positive cases are reported.

However, Tagaloa said they would rather be looking at identifying districts rather than villages where positive cases could be present.

He hopes the missing information from the 47% positive cases detected will be obtained by Wednesday this week.

VACCINATION STATUS OF REPORTED CASES:

• Unvaccinated 3%
• 1 dose 3%
• 2 doses 45%
• 3 doses 3%

CASES BY SEX: Male 36% Female 53%

CASES BY RESIDENCE:  Upolu 98% Savaii 2%

CASES BY AGE GROUP:

• 15-19 years 37%
• 25-29 years 30%
• 20-24 years 25%
• 10-14 years 17%
• 30-34 years 12%
• 50-54 years 10%

There are also recorded positive cases of children between ages 0-9 years

Public exposure unnecessary
Tagaloa also warned the public to avoid being exposed to the COVID-19 virus by staying away from congested screening sites where tests are being carried out.

He said the tests are basically for anyone suspected to have the symptoms of either feverish, body fatigue, headaches and sore stomach.

“If you do not have these symptoms, stay away from these sites so not to get exposed to those who could be positive,” said Tagaloa.

But the information arrived too late as last Saturday, people packed the screening sites after the first positive community case was confirmed and the country moved to Alert Level 2 on Friday and to Alert Level 3 on Saturday.

The concern raised was that people who were close contact to the three youths who tested positive at STA in the weekend are probably already exposed to the virus.

But gaps in the public awareness information continued as yesterday’s press conference took place after 11.00am where people were cautioned but many already lined up at the testing sites from 7.00 am.

When asked about the delayed public notification, Tagaloa said their teams had been dealing with difficult members of the public and it was hard to turn people away and they rather continue and test all of them than delaying the process.

Tagaloa urged the public for anyone with the symptoms to contact the nearest medical service available within the zones they reside in.