At a hearing last week, the Director of the American Samoa Medicaid Office, Sandra King Young, welcomed the opportunity to answer questions of House members concerning the TalofaPass system.
She appeared with Health Director Motusa Tuileama Nua and Acting Clinical Director of DOH, Dr. Elizabeth Lauvao.
King Young apologized to the lawmakers, saying that the government did not do a good job of explaining the TalofaPass system. The system was used to register travelers to the territory and to collect their health and immigration data, as well as help with the contact-tracing of people with COVID-19.
She felt the lack of awareness has led to misinformation and a malicious character assasination against herself.
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The Medicaid director summed up the system as thus.
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Rep. Luaitaua Gene Pan opined that the capabilities of the TalofaPass system that the Medicaid director described were available on island. He pointed out that the territory has spent years training young people on GIS and other IT expertise.
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Ms King Young offered to have a more detailed briefing with Rep. Luaitaua and other lawmakers on the TalofaPass system.
At the hearing the Medicaid Director laid to rest, reports that travelers from Manu’a have to register on TalofaPass.
Another topic covered extensively at the hearing was the testing done in Honolulu by Capture diagnostics, which we will report on later.
