Samoa detects scores of COVID cases within days of outbreak

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Samoa has reported scores of new COVID-19 cases daily since detecting its first case of community transmission last week. The South Pacific island nation of 200,000 people has been in lockdown since Saturday as it deals with its first outbreak of the pandemic. The discovery of the first community case last week indicated the virus likely had been spreading undetected for days or even weeks. Samoa reported another 95 new cases Saturday and another 85 on Sunday. Pacific island nations were among the last places in the world to avoid virus outbreaks. But the more transmissible omicron variant has changed the equation, and one by one the island nations have been succumbing to COVID-19.