Samoa

A 29-year-old woman tested positive for the coronavirus on Thursday during routine testing before boarding an international flight.

Dozens of travelers from Fiji tested positive in Kiribati, prompting the island nation to implement its first lockdown. Samoa's order followed a cluster of cases in airline passengers from Australia.

An undersea volcano erupted near the Pacific nation of Tonga, sending tsunami waves crashing across the shore there and around the Pacific, including a surges along the U.S. West Coast.

Government officials say anti-vaccination advocates have complicated their efforts to turn the tide on an epidemic that has killed at least 63 people, most of them children.

Forty-eight of the fatalities were children under 4 years old. The number of immunizations plummeted last year after improperly prepared vaccines led to the deaths of two infants.

Samoa is under a state of emergency as its health system struggles with the crisis. NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro speaks to the editor of the Samoa Observer, Keni Lesah.

The government declared a state of emergency Friday. At least six people have died. Officials say most of them were children under two.