COVID-19 cases

American missionary Naila Tyner became the first person in Samoa to be infected with the virus outside a quarantine facility, and took to Facebook to share her experience.

"Up until that point, there was no Covid in this on this island as far as we knew, and so I was not expecting what happened," she said.

Apia-based journalist Maina Vai said though the unexpected community case was "a shock to the country", residents are optimistic that the outbreak will come under control.

66 new cases were recorded yesterday bringing the total to 262.

This after the country became one of the last places to record a covid case, last Thursday.

The Ministry of Health has confirmed a total of 1,510 tests were carried out by midday yesterday at seventeen screening sites.

In addition to the 247 community cases, 15 imported cases linked to the NZ 0990 repatriation flight on 6th March 2022, continue to be monitored in isolation.

The Ministry of Health has identified a total of 428 close contacts of these cases and they remain under investigation.

Covid-19 outbreaks in the Blues, Highlanders, and Crusaders squads have forced a change in the schedule.

The only game that will be played this weekend is Moana Pasifika against the Chiefs at Mount Smart Stadium in Auckland in Saturday night.

The original schedule had the Highlanders playing host to Moana Pasifika in Dunedin, the Blues playing the Crusaders in Christchurch, and the Hurricanes versus the Chiefs in Wellington.

Moana Pasifika have only played one game in their debut season so far - that was against the Crusaders earlier this month.

In a release the Highlanders said they had cancelled today's training session, but at this point there has been no decision made on Friday's game in Dunedin.

They said there had been no change to the rest of their schedule this week.

The Highlanders have managed to play four games so far this season, losing all four of them.

However, another postponed game would be a major setback for Moana Pasifika, who have played just one game so far.

They had two games postponed at the start of the season because of Covid-19 in their camp.

Two Covid-related deaths have also been reported and there are 952 people in hospital, including 19 in intensive care.

The average age of people in hospital is currently 58.

Of the two Covid-related deaths, one was in Waikato and one was in Canterbury. Both people were women aged over 70.

The total number of publicly reported Covid-19 related deaths to date is now 115, the ministry said in a statement.

"Our thoughts and sympathies are with the whānau and friends of all those who have died."

The ministry has reported 18,833 new community cases of Covid-19 today, with 597 people in hospitals, including 10 people who need intensive care.

It said 9789 cases reported today were in Auckland, which recorded more than 13,000 cases yesterday, with health authorities in New Zealand's largest city hoping the Omicron wave had peaked.

They are all reported to be well and asymptomatic.

The latest positive case involving a passenger, who travelled on a repatriation flight from Australia on 19 January, was discharged yesterday.

Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata’afa announced today that the passenger returned three negative tests consecutively.

A total of 272 passengers who arrived on an Air New Zealand flight on 12 February 2022 are in quarantine.

All the passengers have completed three tests within seven days and their results returned negative.

Three of the passengers and four nurses remain in quarantine until their third tests are dibe while their first two tests have all come out negative.

In a press conference at the weekend, Director General of Health, Leausa Take Naseri confirmed that the third and last tests for the remaining seven in quarantine are likely to come out negative given their conditions in quarantine.

The recent repatriation flight was last week Saturday from New Zealand which landed with 272 passengers and have all been tested negative upon arrival as well as their second tests in quarantine.

The Health Ministry reports the victims were a 70-year-old man with underlying medical conditions and an 89-year-old woman who was unvaccinated.

There have been over 2,800 infections recorded across the atoll islands, with 23 new cases reported in the past two days.

The Government has extended its nationwide lockdown for another fortnight since Friday.

Authorities said the lockdown "may be longer should the need arise" due to widespread community transmissions.

In a statement, the Ministry of Health said the new cases are in Northland (16), Auckland (340), Waikato (48), Lakes (13), Bay of Plenty (14), Lakes (13), Taranaki (1), Hutt Valley (7), Capital & Coast (4), and Southern (3).

The ministry said the number of cases would continue to fluctuate from day-to-day but "our expectation is that cases will continue to increase in the coming weeks".