[7] On 12 January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed that a novel coronavirus was the cause of a respiratory illness in a cluster of people in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China, which was reported to the WHO on 31 December 2019.

[14] Two Samoan nationals who had briefly stopped in China were placed into quarantine on 28 January for two weeks at the Faleolo District Hospital.

[19] On 29 February, the government announced restrictions on air travel, with the frequency of international flights into Samoa being reduced from 2 March.

[26][27] On 22 March, Prime Minister Tuilaepa Aiono Sailele Malielegaoi announced that the first suspected case of COVID-19 had been cleared of the virus.

[31] On 26 March, the Samoan Government introduced lockdown measures including banning fishing boats from entering Samoa and fining businesses that breached the quarantine.

[34] On 20 April, Radio New Zealand reported that nearly 300 had been arrested in Samoa for violating the "Covid-19 State of Emergency Orders", which came into force on 21 March.

[35] Around this date human rights organisation Brown Girl Woke shared donated masks for free to its community members.

[37][38] On 10 June, Prime Minister Malielegaoi announced the relaxation of lockdown restrictions on religious services, street vendors, weddings, and village matai councils.

There remains a five-person limit on funerals, traditional title bestowals, birthdays, reunions, and opening ceremonies for building.

[39] Following the detection of three new cases in American Samoa resulting from sea travel, Samoan authorities have launched an investigation into whether the three infected individuals had disembarked from their container ship Fesco Askold which had docked in Apia's port over the weekend.

[40] On 18 November, Samoa confirmed its first potential case: a sailor who had returned from Auckland, New Zealand the previous week.

[46] On 24 March 2021, Dr Take Naseri, the Director-General of Health, confirmed that individuals 18 years old and over would receive the Oxford–AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.

[48] On 11 August, Samoa Health authorities launched a country-wide door-to-door mass vaccination campaign.

The National Emergency Operations Committee also announced that more than half of the eligible population had received their first dose and 22 percent had been fully vaccinated.

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had dispatched equipment to countries around the world to enable them to use a nuclear-derived technique to rapidly detect the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 and Samoa was on the list.

[50] On 20 January, Samoa reported ten cases in managed isolation, who had arrived on a Qantas charter flight from Brisbane in Australia.

[54] On 29 January, Fiame announced that the country's nationwide lockdown would be lifted due to a lack of COVID-19 community transmissions.

In response, the Samoan Cabinet activated its zoning policy as part of its National COVID-19 Plan; imposed Level 3 restrictions until 22 March.

Under these restrictions, supermarkets, wholesale, small shops, pharmacies, fish and fresh produce markets, and restaurants were only allowed to operate between 8am to 2pm.

The first international flight to travel to Samoa following the lifting of border restrictions was a New Zealand Defence Force aircraft carrying a delegation of New Zealand political leaders, officials, civil society leaders, and journalists including Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.